INAUGURATION 


REV.  JAS.  M'COSH,  D.D.,  LL.D., 


f  it^iliirt  0f  f  iriE0t0i-  €]0lli0^, 


OCTOBER  27,  1868. 


INAUGURATION 


REV.  JAS.  M'COSH,  D.D.,  LL.D., 


gl^  f  w^itot  ttf  §mmtm 


OCTOBER  27,  1868. 


The  following  pages  contain  a  brief  account  of  the  recent  Inauguration  Ex- 
ercises at  Princeton,  with  all  the  addresses  delivered  on  that  occasiou  in  full, 
and  ■/  evi.'ied  hy  the  authors. 

The  design  has  been  to  give  those  who  were  there,  a  token  whereby  to  awaken 
slumbering  recollection,  and  those  who  had  not  the  good  fortune  to  be  present, 
some  faint  notion  of  the  glad  and  festive  jubilee,  with  which  the  sons  of  science 
held  high  carnival  in  that  venerable  retreat  of  letters. 


PUBLISHED  BY  STELLE  &  SMITH,  COLLEGE  BOOKSELLERS  AND  PUBLISH^ 
ERS,  PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

1868. 


Introductory  remarks 

By  Ilis  Ex'^ellency,  Marcus  L.  "Ward,  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  and  cx- 
officio  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  Presiding. 

Music. 
Invocation 

By   The   Rev.    Jonathan    F.  Stearns,   D.D.,  a  member  of  the  Board  of 

Trustees. 

Music,  72d  Psalm. 

Address  of  Welcome  on  behalf  of  the  Trustees. 

By  The  Rev.  Charles  Hodge,  D.T).,  LL.D.,  of  the  Class  of  18T5,"Professor 
in  the  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  Senior  Member  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees. 

Address  of  Welcome  on  behalf  of  the  Under-Graduates. 

By  Mr.  J.  Thomas  Finley,  of  the  Senior  Class,  rejjresenting  the  Cliosophic 
and  American  Whig  Societies. 

Congratulatory  Address  to  the  Alumni  and  friends  of  the 
College. 

By  The  Honorable  William  C.  Alexander,  of  the  Class  of  1824. 

Address  in  Response,  on  behalf  of  the  Alumni. 

By  The  Honorable  James  Pollock,  LL.D.,  Class  of  1831,  Ex-Governor  of 
Pennsylvania. 

The  Oaths  of  office  administered  to  the  President-Elect. 

By  The  Honorable  Abraham  0.  Zabriskie,  LL.D.,  of  the  Class  of  1825, 
Chancellor  of  New  Jersey. 

Music,  "  Te  Deum  Laudamus." 

Delivery  of  the  Charter  and  Keys  of  the  College  to  the 
President. 

By  The  Reverend  John  Maclean,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Class  of  1816,  the 
retiring  President  of  the  College. 

Inaugural  Address. 

By  The  Reverend  James  McCosh,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  the   College. 
Subject :  "  Academic  Teaching  in  Europe." 

Concluding  Prayer. 

By  The  Revei'cnd  George  Mi:s(;itAVE,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees. 

Music,  DoxoLOGY,  117th  Psalm. 
Benediction. 

By  The  Rev.  Isaac  Ferris,  D.D.,  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  New  York. 


JiiHuijurHtiait  (fiercmanie.^. 


Tuesday,  Oct.  27th.,  1868,  was  a  day  which  will  be  historic 
in  the  annals  of   Princeton. 

One  liundred  years  ago,  John  Witherspoon  was  called  from 
Scotland  to  take  cliarge  of  the  young  Institution.  Now  across 
the  same  Atlantic,  the  worthy  trustees  call  a  man  whose  fame 
is  not  bounded  by  his  native  land,  or  even  by  his  native  tongue, 
but  who  is  known  wherever  the  mental  sciences  are  known  and 
studied.  The  rareness  of  the  occurrence,  the  interest 
attaching  to  the  Institution,  and  the  high  character  and 
ability  of  the  newly  elected  President,  combined  to  make  this 
an   event  of  surpassing  interest. 

The  incoming  President,  is  a  native  of  Scotland,  a  tall, 
handsome  man,  with  dark,  penetrating  eyes,  a  pleasant  smi':e, 
and  most  engaging  manners.  His  forehead  is  high  and  clear, 
and  his  mouth  indicates  him  as  a  man  of  great  firmness  and 
strength  of  will.  He  has  just  enough  of  the  scholarly  stoop 
to  betray  his  sedentary  avocation,  yet  his  step  is  elastic,  and 
in  all  respects  he  seems  like  a  vigorous  man  to  whom  the  ex- 
ercise of  mental  or  bodily  powers  is  never  fatiguing.  His 
hair  is  gray,  for  he  is  fast  approaching  the  age  of  three  score 
years,  and  he  wears  his  whiskers  in  the  English  style.  For  16 
years  Dr.  McCosb  was  pastor  at  Brechen,  in  Scotland,  and 
for  the  same  length  of  time  occupied  the  chair  of  Professor  of 
Logic  and  Metaphysics  in  Queen's  College,  Belfast.  He  is 
the  author  of  several  well-known  metaphysical  works,  among 
which  are  his  ''Method  of  Divine  Government,  Pliysical  and 
Moral,"  "  Intuitions  of  the  Human  Mind,"  "  Typical  Forms 
and  Special  Ends  in  Creation,"  "  The  Supernatural  in  Rela- 
tion to  the  Natural,"  "A  Defence  of  Fundamental  Truth," 
in  answer  to  John  Stuart  Mill,  and  others,  in  all  of  which  he 
shows  great  depth  of  thought  and  the  erudition  of  a  mighty 
scholar. 


4 

At  12  o'clock  the  procession  was  formed  In  the  College  cam- 
pus. H(>aded  by  Grafulla's  Band  the  cortege,  consisting  of 
the  officers  of  the  College,  the  ex-President,  and  President 
elect,  the  Governor  of  the  State,  the  Chancellor,  the  Direc- 
tors and  Facility  of  the  Theological  Seminary,  the  under- 
graduates and  their  orator,  the  officiating  clergymen,  the 
Alumni  and  Laureati  of  Princeton,  and  a  host  uf  citizens, 
m.'irched  to  the  Church  under  the  orders  of  Gen.  Caldwell  K. 
Hall,  Grand  Marshal,  a  graduate  of  the  Cla^s  of  1857.  The 
galleries  and  lecture  room,  in  which  a  platform  had  been  erected, 
so  that  those  on  it  could  hear  the  proceedings,  through  the 
windows  on  each  side  of  the  stage,  were  appropriated  exclu- 
sively to  the  ladies,  who  were  admitted  only  by  ticket.  Four 
hundi-ed  tickets  were  issued,  and  the  galleries  were  crowded. 

Among  the  prominent  gentlemen  present,  we  noticed  Gov. 
Ward,  ex-Govs.  Olden  and  Newell  of  New  Jerey  ;  Chancel- 
lor Ferris,  of  the  Uuiversity  of  New  York,  Rev.  Dr.  C.  Hodge, 
Rev.  Drs.  Phillips  and  Schaff ;  Ex-Gov.  Pollock,  of  Pa.,  and 
Hon.  George  H.  Stuart ;  Hon  Wm.  C.  Alexander  of  New 
York  :  Chancellor  Zabriskie,  Judge  Field,  Ex-Chancellor  Gceen, 
Hon.  Daniel  Haines,  Senator  Freiinghuysen,  of  New  Jersey  ; 
Gen.  Robert  Anderson,  (of  Fort  Sumprer  fime)  and  many 
others.  Col.  Joseph  Warren  Scott,  of  Now  Brunswick,  and 
Elbert  Herring,  of  New  York,  now  in  his  9o  year,  both  of  the 
class  of  1795  ;  were  on  the  stagf'. 

Every  class  for  50  years  back  without  an  exception,  as  far 
as  is  known,  was  represented. 

The  proceedings  altogether  were  full  of  inspiration  and  en- 
thusiasm. The  day  was  pronounced  by  those  competent  to  judge 
unparalleled  in  the  history  of  this  or  any  other  college  in 
the  land — the  commencement  it  may  be  hoped  of  a  new  era  in 
the  prosperity  and  usefulness  and  fame  of  an  Institution,  which 
has  [irobably  done  more  for  the  advancement  of  our  natioii  in 
intellectual  progress,  high-to  ed  statesmanship,  and  generous 
principles  of  government  than  any  other  of  the  sisterhood. 

His  Excellency,  Governor  Ward,  introduced  die  exercises  of 
the  occasion  in  the  following  address: 

"  Tills  institution  of  learning  so  closely  identified  with  (he 
reputation  and  honor  of  oor  State  is  about  to  install  as  its 
President  one  whose  learning,  eultiiro  and  fanie  is  as  wide- 
spread as  the  language  we  speak.  Gifted  and  aide  minds  have 
from  the  coinmencement  presided  over  these  balls  of  learning, 
and  none  have  been  more  successful  ihan  he,  who  full  of  years 
and  honors  this  day  resigns  the  trust  to  other  hands.  May  he 
long  live  to  enjoy  the  esteem  of  his  many  friends  and  the 
retrosfiect  of  a  life  well  spent. 


From  far  and  wide  the  Alumni  and  friends  of  the  College 
have  »^alhei-ed  to  honor  the  occasion,  and  to  attesit  their  in- 
terest in    its   material    progress  and   its  intellectual    trinrnj)!)". 

Never  did  its  future  seem  so  assured  as  now  ;  with  a  faculty 
first  in  all  the  departments  of  knowledge  it  stands  the  peer  if 
not  the  superior  of  the  institnti'^ns  of  learning  in    the    nation." 

I'he  Governor  then  introduced  Rev.  Jonathan  F.  Stearns, 
D.  D.,  who  invoked  the  Divine  blessing,  returning  liianks  for 
the  prosninence  and  influence  attained  by  tiie  institution  in 
whose  interest  we  are  asseml)led  ;  for  the  nob!e  friends  which 
liave  been  raised  up  in  its  behalf  in  the  land  ;  for  the  alumni 
it  had  sent  forth  to  represent  it  in  the  world.  He  expressed 
gratitude  that  its  nev?l\'  elected  President  had  been  brought  in 
safety  to  our  shores — to  engage  in  the  fullness  of  his  years 
and  wisdom  in  the  work  before  him  — imploring  the  Divine 
favor  upon  him,  and  prosperity  on  the  institution  under  his  ad- 
tninisiration. 

Music,  72d  Psalm. 

The  address  of  welcome  on  beltalfof  the  Trustees,  was  delivered 
bv  the  Rev.  Charles  Hodge,  D.  D..  LL.  D..  of  the  Class  of 
1815,  Professor  in  the  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  Senior 
Member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 

ADDRESS   OF    REV.    DR.    HODGE. 

Reverend  and  Honored  Sir  : — The  Trustees  of  the  College  of 
New  Jersey  tender  you  their  cordial  salutatiotis.  We  regard  your 
accession  to  the  presidency  of  this  institution  as  a  niostauspicious 
event.  In  no  case  within  our  knowledge  has  an  academic  elec- 
tion been  received  with  such  unmistakable  evidtmce  of  public 
approbati.in.  High  expectations  are  entertained  of  yonr  suc- 
cess in  the  career  on  which  you  are  about  to  enter.  Why  this 
is  ;  why  such  hopes  are  cherished,  it  would  not  be  pioper  for 
me,  in  your  [)rescnce,  to  slate;  suffice  it  to  say,  that  the  high 
positions  which  you  have  succesr-fully  filled  in  your  owncoiintry  ; 
the  world-wide  reputation  secured  by  the  productions  (^f  your 
pen  ;  our  personal  ktiowledge  of  you  as  a  Christian  gentle- 
ihan  and  faithful  minister  of  Christ,  are  I'utional  gounds  for  the 
hope  that  your  presidency  will  constitute  an  epoch  in  the  history 
of  Nassau  Hall.  How  these  expectations  are  to  be  realized, 
what  measures  are  to  be  adopted  to  increase  the  efficiency  and 
eidiance  the  reputation  of  the  college,  we  leave  to  you  and  your 
able  coadjutors  of  the  Faculty  to  determine.  We  would  in  a 
single  word  stale  what  it  is  we  desire.  It  is  that  true  religion 
iiere  may  be  dominant  ;  that  a  pure  gospel  may  be  preached, 
atid  taught,  and  lived  ;  that  the  studertts  should  be  made  to  feel 
that  the  eternal  is  infinitely  more  important  than  the  te(n- 
poral,  the  heavenly  than  the  earthly.     Wc  are  deeply  convinced 


6 

that  all  forms  of  knowledge  without  reli^rion  become  satanic. 
The  ground  of  this  conviciion  is  not  the  perceived  causal  rela- 
tion between  impiety  and  immorality;  nor  solely  the  lessons  of 
experience,  but  the  revealed  purpose  of  God,  that  tlmse  who 
refuse    to  acknowledge  iiim,  he  will  give  up  to  reprobate  mind. 

But  religion  and  science  are  twin  daughtei-s  of  heaven. — 
There  is,  or  there  should  be,  no  conflict  between  them.  We  ear- 
nestly desire,  tiierefore,  that  all  departments  of  knowledy:e  em- 
braced in  the  curriculum  of  such  an  institution,  should  be  here 
so  cultivated  as  to  secure  the  highest  measure  of  mental  culture, 
the  richest  stores  of  acquired  knowledge,  and  the  formation  of 
the  best  habits  for  future  study  and  future  action. 

One  sentence  more.  We  earnestly  desire  that  the  governing 
princi[)le  in  this  institution  should  be  love  ;  that  the  teachers 
may  love  the  students  and  the  students  love  their  teachers  ; 
that  these  young  men  may  be  led  by  the  cords  of  affection  into 
the  ways  of  oi'der,  self-control  and  diliger.ce. 

It  is  with  the  confident  hojie  of  seeing  these  ends  accom- 
plished w<,'  inscribe  your  honored  name  to  the  list  of  the 
Pi'esidents  of  this  College.  Your  predecessors  in  that  office 
form  one  of  the  brightest  galaxies  in  the  ecclesiastical  and 
literary  fiimament  of  this  western  hemisphere — bogimiing  with- 
Dickinson,  the  foremost  man  in  our  church,  in  his  generation, 
and  ending  with  Maclean,  than  whom  no  man  living  among  us  is 
regarded  with  deeper  reverence  or  more  sincere  affection. 

We  commend  you  to  the  grace  of  God.  and  to  the  guidance 
of  our  great  God  and  Saviour,  Jcaus  Christ,  for  whom  this 
College  was  founded,  and  to  whom  it  inalienably  belongs. 

On  behalf  of  the  Under-graduates,  Mr.  J.  Thomas  Finley  of 
the  Senior  Class  delivered  an  address  io  Latin,  which  was 
warmly  applauded  by  the  students. 

ADDRESS   OF  MR.    FINLEY. 

Sol  exoptatus  illuxit;  dies  laetissjmus  festissimusque  agitur.  Quod 
botumi,  felix  faustunique  sit,  Nassovi'a  venerabilis,  colenda  semper  et  culta, 
prajsidem  undecinmni  accipit.  Neque  nostra  solum  hujus  diei  eventus 
interest,  veruui  etiam  Ecclesia?,  llcipuhlicaj,  Seculi. 

Curatoribus  houoratis  visum  est  nos  quoque  qui  adhuc  in  gremio  Almae 
Matris  morautur,  gratulationes  nostras  affere.  Ut  qui  maxime,  te  ex  ani- 
mo  prajsidem  nostrum  salvere  jubemus  ! 

Te  florem  eximium  cultus  Pjurojiaii  arbitrati  sunius,  te  Scientias  ac  Eeli- 
gionis  consensus  interpreteni  maximum,  te  Fidei  defensorem  prsecipuum. 
Collegii  nostri  historia  tibi  hand  omnino  ignota  est.  Keipublie.-B  historias 
vinculis  artissimis  est  intexta.  Witherspoou  illustrissimus,  praases  sextus, 
advena  acceptissimus  idemque  civis  tuus,  patrise  adoptivne  valde  amans, 
publicis  consiliis  seculo  natali  nostro  interfuit.  Madison  clarissimus  ejus- 
dem  astatis  alumnus,  Reipublicne  praefuit,  aliisque  muneribus  publicis 
functus  est.  Ne  te  merer,  ecclesia  quoque  et  theologla  sacra  pra;sidibu3 
alamnisque  nostris  non  minus  debent.     Edwards,  Davies,  Green,  ne  alio* 


iportuos  viventesve  comraemorem,  faraara  suam  no.stra,mque  late  protule- 
runt.     In  Iioruin  inuneruni  honoruiiique  societatem  te  Iseti  accipimus. 

Collegii  nostri  decas  praj.^ipuum  fait,  quQcl  artiuiu  liberalium  studio 
religio  oiniii  tempore  {)nBt'uerit.  Haez  ratio  disciplinaris  tibi  cordi  t^eniper 
fuit,  erit  isemper.  Omnom  Immanitatetn  commendans  et  docens,  philos- 
pphiam  verani  et  religioneui  pra^cipue  iioLis  exponas  atque  exemplo  tuo 
coniirnies.  Mater  omnium  bonarum  artiuni,  sapientia  tibi  maximam 
debet  gratiam  ;  in  lEre  tuo  magis  magisque  sit.  Nihil  nobis  juvenibus 
potius  est  quam  ut  opera  talia  tibi  bene  procedant. 
"Pater  ipse  colendi 
Haud  taeilem  esse  viam  voluit." 

Utilitas  "justi  piope  mater  et  asqui,"  civibus  nostris  maximo  pretio  est. 
Hac  via  ardua,  utiiium  sagacissimus  nos  volentes  in  sapientiam  veram 
sanctamque  duca.s ! 

Patria  nostra  nondum  adulta,  mens  animusque  adolescentes  tibi  in  ma- 
nus  dantur.  In  bonum  verumque  nos  faciles  semper  invenias  !  Te  ipso 
nobis  ignoto,  nomen  tuum  et  opera  tua  haudquaquam  ignota  sunt.  "In- 
tuitiones"  tuaj  hosjuvenes  instituerunt.  Vesiigia  tua  ardentes  insecuti 
sunt.  Te  cum  Kaiitio  iMillio  ceterisque  luctantem  intentis  oculis  observ- 
arunt,  et  "Habet,  habet!"  acclamarunt,  '"Conscientia;  vera  philo-ophia 
est  conformanda. "  Te  vincente  verum  rectumque  triumphantur  ;  nos  ergo 
la^tati  sumns. 

,,  Nobis  adventu  tuo  nihil  exoptatius  est.  Tua  salus  salus  nostra  est, 
fama  tua  nos  quoque  illustrat.  Labores  tui  nos  omnes  in  omni  liberalium 
artiuni  studio  promovebunt. 

Estate  ineunto  certiores  facti  te  haic  munera  curaturum  clamore  nostro 
totum  ajr  implevimus— alis  igneis  la3titiam  nostram  in  ccelum  misimus. 
Tibi  prajiidi  no-itro  honoratissimo  omnia  beneficia  satis  superque  sint. 
Nobis  te  praJside  favor  Dei  abunde  adsit ! 

"  Appareat  beata  jjleno  copia  cornu  !  " 

Quum  decessor  tuiis,  Maclean,  vir  veneratus  delectusque  semper,  tibi 
muneris  insignia  dederit,  tibi  nobisque  dignitatem  ingrediaris  in  omnia 
secula  illustrem. 

Vivat  McCosh  !     Vivat  Nassovia  ! 

Sperantes,  fidentes,  laetantes  te  iterum  iterumque  salvere  jubemus. 

riie  Confrratnlatory  Address  to  tiie  Alumni  and  friends  of 
the  College  by  Hon.  William  C.  Alexander  of  the  class  of  1824. 

WM.    C.    ALEXANDERS    ADDRESS. 

,  Brother  Graduates  and  other  friends  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey : — It 
is  o;iiy  williin  a  tew  days  thai  T  have  been  advisid  ilmt  the  d  ly  had  bet'i)  as- 
signed me  of  tendering  to  tin-  a'^sembled  jiraduates  of  tlie  col  eye,  and  such 
other  friends  as  Iionored  us  with  their  presence,  the  waini  and  cordial  con- 
gratulations of  tlie  college  on  its  present  condiijoii  and  prospects,  and  on  its 
good  fortune  in  having  at  this  juncture  secured  as  its  president  one  so  capable, 
honored,  and  disimuuished  as  the  reverend  and  learried  gentleman  who  is 
this  day  *.o  ch:iriie  himself  with  the  conduct  ol  its  aff.nrs.  I  could  have 
wished  that  this  duly  had  fallen  upon  some  one  betier  qualified  for  its  suitable 
and  acccfdable  perfornianee  ;  and  now  under  t^ie  embarrassments  which  sur- 
round me,  I  am  ever,  at  this  moment  temped  to  shrink  from  the  undertak- 
inur  of  a  task  wiijcli  the  fl  itterin,^  pre  erence  of  the  guardians  of  the  insti- 
tution has  so  kindly  but  unexpectedly  devolved  upon  me.  I  am  constrained, 
however,  in  all  my  weakness,  to  enter  upon  the  task,  hoping  to  find  my 
strength  in  the  spirit  of  the  cause  which  animates  me.  And  here,  in 
these  circumstances,   I  may  cot  inappropriately   use   the  words  of  a  distin-, 


guislied  speaker  in  another  land — "  Here,  where  every  obif  ct  sprinjrs  some 
sweet  association,  and  tiie  vis  ons  of  fancy,  mellowed  as  they  are  by  time, 
rise  painted  on  the  eye  of  memory — iiere,  wliere  the  set  ues  of  my  fi.ildiiood 
remind  me  how  innocent  I  was,  and  the  graves  of  my  lathers  admonish  me 
how  pure  I  should  continue — here,  stand in.L?  as  I  do  among  my  fairest,  fond- 
est, earlie-t  sympathies — oh,  believe  me,  warm  is  the  heart  that  feels,  and 
willing  is  the  tongue  that  speaks  ;  and  yet  I  cannot  by  shaping  it  in  my 
rude,  inexpressive  plirase,  but  shock  the  sensibility  of  a  heart  too  lull  to 
be  expressed,  and  far  too  eloquent  for  language."  It  is  an  inten  sting  facts 
and  not  without  significance,  that  when  the  graduates  of  an  ancient  col- 
lege assemble  together,  as  we  do  now,  in  circumstances  of  peculiar  and  un- 
wonted interest,  the  tiiouuhts  of  each  one  immediaieiy  revert  to  ihe  days  of 
his  own  novtiale.  The  daj's  of  our  youth,  in  every  worldly  sense  our 
happiest  days,  come  back  upon  us  in  such  gatherings,  and  we  would  fain 
live  over  again  the  hours  when  we  were  yet  nntaintfd  by  the  earthy  hand- 
ling of  bu-:iness,  and  of  care;  and  when  our  models  of  statesmen  and  patriots 
were  those  stern  impracticable  old  Greeks  and  Romans,  concerning  whom 
we  were  accustomed  to  read  with  o;r  masters.  Such  a  return  of  thouaht 
is  both  natural  and  pleasing,  like  the  coming  back  of  some  war-worn  soldier, 
after  the  vissitudi-s  of  ycirs  to  the  green  quietude  of  the  lap  of  earth  where 
be  hud  spent  his  childhood  amon,'  the  hills.  Therelcre  it  is  that  on 
such  occasions  our  thoughts  run  back  to  the  days  of  a<;ademic  disciplint'. — 
They  were  our  days  of  impression.  Later  tiaces  lave  been  superficial  in 
comparison.  Then  the  seal  was  set  on  the  melted  wax,  which  presently 
grew  hard  as  rock.  What  a  tribute  to  the  power  of  academic  education. 
Great  m  D  and  gieat  scholars  have  no  doubt  bet  n  made  in  privacy.  But 
these  must  (orever  want  the  high  and  almost  festive  associations  of  joint 
pursuit,  the  remembrance  of  enthus  asm  caught  Irom  soul  to  soul  in  the  com- 
mon  race  for  knowledge  and  reputation. 

There  is  no  literary  institution  in  America  around  which  so  many  in- 
teresting and  even  romantic  incmorie-!  and  associations  Cluster  as  the  venera- 
ble college  in  whose  behalf  we  are  this  day  assein  i!ed  ;  ami  the  coutribu- 
tions  she  has  made  to  the  cause  of  the  country,  of  education,  and  to  the 
Olmrcli,  have  never  yet  been  duly  recorded  and  pri>pe:ly  estimated  and  ap- 
preciated. Brought  into  existence  at  a  period  anterior  to  the  Ui^voliiiion, 
her  history  duriniir  the  years  of  that  n  emorable  contest  is  inseparably  in- 
terwoven and  intertwinnd  with  tlie  history  of  the  country.  At  the  I'reakmg 
out  of  the  Revolution,  her  graduates,  numbered  but  four  hundred  and 
eighty-three,  a  large  proportion  of  whom  with  many  of  the  students  iii  at- 
tendance, passed  from  her  walls  to  the  niiks  of  the  Revolutionary  army  ; 
and  not  one  single  instance  can  be  discovered,  after  the  closest  sciuiiny,  of 
any  one  sou  of  the  college,  during  that  eventful  struggle,  having  proved 
recreant  or  apostate  to  the  cause  of  lib/^rty  and  the  country  :  while  their 
blood  moisteufd  every  battle  fit-Id, 'roni  Quebec  to  Savannah.  If  time  per- 
mitt  d  me  (lor  I  ain  limited  in  the  number  of  minutes  I  can  occupy)  1  couid 
point  to  authentic  records  in  history  showing  that  graduates  of  this  college, 
who,  filling  the  place  of  humble  min  sters  of  the  Gospel  when  the  storm 
rolled  over  the  land,  assembled  together  the  male  members  of  their  con- 
greiiations,  raised  a  standard  of  defence,  reiterate'  the  old  Puritan  doctrine 
that  "  resistance  to  tyrants  was  obedience  to  God,"  and  placing  ihera 
selves  at  the  head  of  their  people  were  soon  found  charging  at  the  iiead 
of  cavalry  regiments  in  front  of  Savannah,  at  Guilford  ("ourt  House,  Eutaw 
Springs,  and  the  Cowpens.  It  has  been  well  said  th..t  this  colh  ge  gave  up 
her  stuff  anil  stay  when  her  sixth  president  wended  his  way  to  the  first  Con- 
gress in  Phi'adelphia,  there  to  pledge  life,  fortune  and  sacred  honor  in  behalf 
of  the  land  of  his  adoption,  and  at  the  same  time  she  gave  the  first  proof 
of   her  academic   labor   when  a  member   of  the  first  class  ever  graduated 


affixed  his  name  to  the  same  glorious  instrument,  the  great  mairna  charta 
of  our  sovereijjn  and  separate  existence.  From  tiie  esiabiisliment  o(  the 
college  in  1747,  down  to  the  period  when  Amt-rica  rose  "  lo  repe!  htr 
\vroi);,rs  and  to  claim  her  desliniey,"  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  thirteen 
colonies  resolved  upon  the  hazirdous  step  of  taUinu:  a  last  stund  upon  the 
adamantine  rock  of  human  ri<ihts,  Uod,  in  his  providence,  was  using  this 
college  as  an  instrument  for  the  preparation  of  mej  who  were  to  perform 
no  unimportant  part  in  that  struggle  for  empire, 

I  have  said  that  tiie  associations  which  cluster  around  tliis  college  are 
memorable.  I  will  mention  but  one  or  two.  There  was  no  darker  period 
in  the  Uevolutionary  struggle  and  more  pregnant  with  greater  events,  and 
the  fortunes  of  tlic  country  than  ihal  in  which  Washington  made  his 
lamous  and  masierly  retreat  across  The  Jerseys,  closely  pursued  by  the 
enemy  under  the  command  of  General  Howe,  from  whom  he  escaped,  by 
taking  a  position  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Delaware.  It  was  not  until  he 
determined  to  put  all  upon  the  hazard  of  the  die  and  had  recrossed  the  Dela- 
ware, encountered  ami  defeated  the  Hessians  at  Trenton,  then  marciied  npou 
and  obtained  victory  at  Princeton,  that^  he,  from  the  then  infant  College  of 
New  Jersey,  was  for  the  first  time  able  to  give  assurance  lo  the  world 
that  the  cause  of  liberty  was  safe.  And  it  is  from  this  spot,  where 
Washington  triumphed  and  where  Mercer  fell,  that  this  institution  con- 
tinues to  diffuse  her  benign  and  hallowed  influence  over  the  land  ;  and 
it  is  upon  this  ground,  lendered  sacred  by  the  bio  )d  of  Mercer,  that  the 
sons  of  the  college  have  assembled  from  all  parts  of  the  country  to  greet  and 
welcome  and  honor  a  countryman  of  that  hero  who  was  an  early  martyr 
in  the  cause  of  freedom. 

In  1783  the  Continental  Congress,  driven  by  the  enemy  from  Philadelphia, 
adjourned  to  Princeton  and  met  in  the  library  of  the  College.  The  fJom- 
mencement  exercises  of  that  year  were  honored  by  the  presence  of  General 
Washington,  who  sat  upon  the  stage,  and  was  specially  iiddressed  by  the 
Valedictory  Orator  of  his  class,  himself  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution,  and 
whose  t.ame  has  witliin  a  ievf  years  been  added  to  the  list  of  illustrious  and 
departed  Presidents  of  Nassau  Hall,  and  whose  mortal  remains  repose  in 
yonder  house  of  silence.* 

There  have  been  two  remarkable  eras  in  the  history  of  the  college.  The 
first  was  one  hundred  yea.-s  ago  in  1768.  On  the  death  of  Dr.  Finley, 
the  president,  the  trustees,  anxious  to  extend  the  fame  and  enlarge  the  in- 
fluence and  usefulness  of  the  institution,  cast  their  eyes  across  the  Atlan- 
tic, and  in  the  person  of  Dr.  John  Witherspoon,  of  Scotland,  saw  one  who 
was  eminently  fifed  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  institution.  They  brought 
him  here  to  preside  over  the  college.  He  added  to  European  educatiun  and 
great  theological  and  scholastic  attainments,  a  profound  knowledge  of  the 
science  of  government.  He  had  a  strong  sympathy  and  affection  fcr  popu- 
lar rights,  which  had  been  engendered,  fostered  and  cultured  in  the  wars  and 
contests  waged  by  him  against  the  claims  of  privilege  and  patronage  in 
bis  own  Church.  No  man  can  carefully  examine  the  hirtory  of  this  college 
at  this  time  without  being  impressed  with  the  wonderful  influence  which  that 
extraordinary  man  exercised  upon  the  cause,  progress  and  success  of  humaa 
liberty  and  the  destit^ies  of  this  country.  He  seems  to  have  imbued  every 
pivpil  with  au  ardent  love  of  liberty,  and  to  have  moulded  the  minds  and 
characters  of  the  future  men  of  the  country,  and  prepared  them  for  the  proud 
and  distinguished  part  which  many  of  them  were  destined  to  perform  in  the 
great  political  drama  then  about  to  be  enacted.  It  is  a  satisfaction  for  me  to 
observe   to-day    in    the   audience   several  direct  decendants  of  that  president 

*The  Reverend  Ashbel  Green,  D,D.,  LL.D.,  the  Seventh  President  of  the  Col- 
lege of  New  Jersey. 


10 

of  the  college,  and  what  is  a  more  extraordinary  fact,  and  more  interesting, 
is,  that  we  have  upon  this  phitt'orm  two  venerable  and  distinguished  men 
educated  under  tlie  presidency  of  Dr.  Witherspoon.  They  graduated  five 
years  before  our  retiring  president  was  born,  but  with  the  frosts  of  more  than 
ninety  winters  pressing  upon  their  brows,  and  with  spirits  as  ucquenched,  and 
witii  a  love  of  their  Alma  Mater  as  unquenchable  as  when,  seventy  three 
years  ago  tliey  received  tlieir  first  degree  at  this  college,  they  have  this  day 
come  up  to  mingle  their  congratulations  and  acclamations  witii  those  of 
their  younger  brethren  on  the  accession  to  the  presidency  of  a  distinguished 
countryman  of  their  illustrious  preceptor." 

The  second  era  in  the  history  of  this    college  is  the  present.     In   1868,   one 
hundred  years  from   the  one  I  have  mentioned,  the  presidency  of  the    college 
again  becam:'  vacant  by  the  retiring  of  that  President  who  for  fifty  years  has 
devoted  all  the  enoriries    of  mind   and  body,  with    a  zeal  unparalleled,  to  the 
intere-ts  of  the  institution  and  of  the  more  enduriuij:  interests  of  die   pupils 
committed  to  his  charge.    [  have  not  time,  nor  is  this  the  plice  for  me    to  speak 
of  that    officer,  but    I  will  never  consent  to  pass  by  his  name,  however    casu- 
ally, in    any    public    assembly,  without  temlering   to  hiin.  the    friend  of  my 
boyhood,  the  instructor  of  my  youth,   the  faithful  and  unwavering  friend  of 
my  riper  years,  the  homage  of  my  gratitude,  warm  esteem,  profound  respect, 
and  most   tender  affection.       The    pr-sidency  of  the  collei;e,  again  becoming 
vacant,  the  trustees,  animated  with  the  same  feeling  that  governed  their  pre- 
decessors one  hundred   years    ago,    desirous    to    extend  the  fame  and  enlarge 
the  influence  of  the  college,  again  cast  their  eyes  across  the  same  Atlantic  to 
summon  to  the  presidency  of  the  college  one,  I  was  going  to  say  of  European 
reputation,  but  I  will  say  a  reputation  not   confined   to   countries  where  the 
Eui^lish  language  is  spoken,  but  extended  as  far  a«  mental   science    is  known. 
Indeed    his   reputation   is   coextensive    with    the   scientific   world.       He   has 
obeyed   that  summo;  s,  and  has  come  among  us,  and  by  trustees,  faculty,  and 
students, and  citizens — the  whole    population — be  has    been  received  with  a 
unanimity   and    intensity    of  welcome — with    a    wild    enthusiasm — which   it 
has  never    before  been    my    lot   to    witness.      And,   surely,   with    regard    to 
that  call,  we  may   believe   in    this    case,  that  the  voice  of  the  people   will 
prove  to   be  the   voice  of  God.     Brother-graduates,    while    we  sons  of  the 
college  are   proud    of  our  academic    lineage,  and    consider    that  the  position 
of  president  of  the  college  is  inferior  in  point  of  honor  and  responsibility    to 
none  other  in  the  land,  yet  remember  that  in  accepting  tiie  call,  and  in  obey- 
ing your  summons,  your  new  president  has  severed  ties  of  no  ordinary  charac- 
ter— ties  which  bound   him  to   the   land  of  his   nativity,  to  the  scenes  of  his 
chiidhood,  youth,  education    and   subsequent   usefulness,   to    the    graves   of 
his  lathers,  and  to  scenes  endeared  by  a  crowd  of  gentle    and  attractive  as- 
sociations.    He  has  come  a  stranger  to  form  new  ties  and  new  acquaintances, 
annd  friendships.      What  claim  has  he  not  to  the  sympathy,  coui.tenance,  sup- 
port, cooperation,  and   prayers  of  every  son    of  this  college?     Remember 
that  it  was  only  when  Aaron  and  Hur  held  up  tlie  weak  hands  of  the  greatest 
ruler   and   lawgiver  the  world  ever  saw,  that  the  armies  of  Israel  prevailed 
against  the  hosts  of  Amelek.     Let  your    prayers   then   be   that   the    God    of 
our  fathers — that  covenant  God— who  for  more  than  a  century  has  blessed  this 
institution,  shall  still   continue    to   guide,  and   protect,   and  bless,  and  send 
down  increased   blessings  upon  her    incoming   president.      I    have   strange 

*At  this  point  of  Mr.  Alexander's  remarks  the  applause  was  loud  and  almost 
impatient,  and,  anticipating  the  desire  of  the  audience,  gentlemen  on  the 
stand  assisted  to  raise  Colonel  J.  Warren  Scott,  of  New  Brunswick,  and  Elbert 
Herring,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  the  two  akirnni  referred  to.  Their  extreme  old  age 
and  the  emotion  they  exhibited  caused  tlie  applause  and  cheers  to  be  renewed, 
which  were  continued  for  nearly  a  minute. 


11 

visions  of  Ihe  future  caretr  and  grandeur  of  lliia  college — strang'e  feelings,  emo- 
tions and  anticipations.  As  I  look  down  thruusih  the  long  avenue  of  time,  I 
in  imagination  see  the  dawn  of  a  more  brilliant  day,  and  feel  and  believe 
that  the  light  which  even  now  illumines  the  path  before  us  will  prove  to  be 
the  precursor  of  a  brighter  glory.  1'be?e  feelings  as  I  sland  b  'fore  you  I 
have  been  endeavoring  to  chastise,  to  suppress  and  drive  back  ihe  emo- 
tions and  anticipations  which  pour  in  upon  me  like  a  flood,  and  almost  in- 
capacitate me  for  the  performance  of  the  duty  which  I  have  perhaps  un- 
wisely and  weakly  undertaken.  That  duty  is  now  pei  formed,  and  all  that 
remains  for  me  to  say  in  regard  to  this  institution  under  its  new  administra- 
tion is,  may  her  former  glory  be  equalled  and  excelfed  ;  may  the  zeal  of  her 
guardians  and  the  fidelity  of  her  instructors  know  no  abatement  ;  the  devo- 
tion, affection  and  loyalty  of  her  sons  sufFjr  no  diminution,  and  amid  the  num- 
bei  less  literary  institutions  now  scattered  throughont  the  length  and  breadth 
of  this  great  confederacy,  may  no  classic  steeple  point  more  proudly  to 
the  skies  than  the  much  loved  spire  of  our  own  Nassau  Hall. 

ADDRESS   OF   EX-GOVERNOR    POLLOCK. 

Hon.  James  Pollock,  ex-Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  made  the  address  in 
response  on  behalf  of  the  alumni,  as  follows : 

Gentlemen  ;  Alumni  and  Friends  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey  : 
In  the  midst  of  the  cares  of  professional  life,  literature  and  leisure  are 
almost  forgotten  terms — memories  of  the  past,  not  present  realizations  ; 
therefore  it  is  that  the  duty  of  this  hour  becomes  almost  opjjressive. — 
But  the  inspiration  of  the  occasion  relieves  the  oppression,  and  bids  the 
lips  utter  what  the  heart  feels. 

1  have  been  requested  to  respond  in  the  name  of  the  alujnni  and  friends 
of  this  college  to  the  address  of  congratulation  to  which  we  have  listen- 
ed with  so  much  pleasure.  The  dutj^  assigned  is  at  once  personal  and 
representative — ^personal  in  the  expression  of  my  own  feelings  and  senti- 
ments on  this  inauguration  day  ;  rejiresentative,  in  declaring  the  contin- 
ued friendshi])  and  devotion  of  the  alumni  to  their  Ahna  Mater,  and  pledg- 
ing in  their  name,  and  may  I  not  add,  by  their  authority,  their  cordial, 
active  and  earnest,  co-operation  in  maintaining  the  pa.st  renown  and 
speeding  the  coming  day  of  her  greater  efficiency  and  glory.  Her  honor 
is  their  honor,  and  we  rejoice  with  her  in  hailing  the  advent  of  one  whose 
name  is  the  pledge  of  progress  and  reform — whose  fame  is  the  synonym  of 
intellectual  triumph,  and  who,  tilled  with  the  "enthusiasm  of  humanity" 
and  the  love  of  ^od,  is  prepared  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  age  and  act 
in  harmony  with  the  mighty  monuments  of  the  present. 

Therefore,  honored  sir,  in  the  name  of  the  Alumni  of  this  College,  we 
bid  you  welcome  to  the  classic  shades  of  Princeton  ;  to  the  high  office  to 
which  you  have  been  called;  to  our  country,  our  hearts  and  homes.  In  the 
name  of  a  common  ancestry,  language,  and  literature  ;  of  kindred  and 
hallowed  memories  ;  of  truth  triumphant  over  error,  teri-or  and  death  ;  of 
an  open  Bible,  a  common  Christianity,  free  churches,  free  schools,  free 
thought  and  free  speech,  we  welcome  you.  You  come  at  an  auspicious 
time  in  our  national  history.  The  rush  and  roll  of  war  have  ceased  in  our 
land.  The  "  confused  noise  of  the  battle  of  the  warrior"  is  no  longer 
heard,  and  "the  garments  rolled  in  blood"  are  no  longer  seen.  Our 
nation,  ri.sing  with  renewed  strength  from  her  late  struggle,  and  wiping 
the  drops  of  her  bloody  baptism  from  her  brow,  stands  before  the  world 
redeemed  from  the  stain  of  human  slavery.  Liberty  and  peace,  in  hap])y 
union  are  gathering  in  their  troi)hies,  and  pointing  with  gratitude  and  pride 
to  a  more  glorious  future.  The  future  of  America !  What  shall  it  be  ? 
You  are  now  with  us  and  of  us,  to  mold  and  form  that  future.     You  come 


12 

from  the  land  of  the  Bible  and  the  Covenant,  the  land  of  the  martyr  and 
the  hero,  and  shall  we  fear  to  entrust  to  your  care  and  guidance  the  youth 
of  America,  those  who  are  our  life,  our  hope,  our  future?  Oh,  no  !  The 
Bible  of  the  Mayflower  was  Scotland's  Bible,  and  it  is  the  Bible  of  Amer- 
ica— -the  bulwark  of  her  liberties — the  jiower  and  strength  of  her  nation- 
ality. Your  Bible  is  our  Bible,  and  your  God  our  God  ;  therefore  we  will 
not  fear.  How  necessary  this  when  we  remember  that  our  government  is 
the  embodiment  of  the  power  of  a  free  people  in  the  forms  of  our  social 
and  political  order— that  American  nationality  is  the  correlative  of  Amer- 
ican manhood — its  development  and  tyjje ;  that  sovereignty  is  with  the 
citizen,  and  the  supreme  and  ultimate  power  of  the  State  is  in  the  ballot- 
box,  vitalized  and  energized  by  free,  intelligent,  and  impartial  suffrage. 
How  important  that  our  literary  institutions  sliould  be  controlled  by  sanc- 
tified intellect,  that  the  cliurch  and  the  scliool  house,  twin  sisters  of  civil- 
ization and  religion,  should  be  seen  dotting  our  vallies  and  crowning  our 
hills,  that  the  "common  school  house,"  the  centre  and  power  of  our  edu- 
cational system,  "  the  people's  colleges"  should  be  found  everywhere  in 
our  land,  with  doors  wide  open,  inviting  all  to  enter  upon  whom  God  has 
enstamped  the  sign  and  signet  of  manhood. 

In  the  republic  of  letters  there  is  no  dwai'fing  selfishness,  no  sectionalism, 
no  sectarianism  ;  all  is  cosmopolitan,  liberal,  universal.  In  other  years, 
Scotland  recognized  this  truth,  and  gave  Witherspoon  to  America. 

Again,  America  has  asked,  and  McCosh  is  ours.  In  asking,  we  hon- 
ored Scotland ;  and  in  giving,  Scotland  honored  herself  and  America. 
She  gave  us  the  "  type  of  her  own  true  n)anhood,  the  representative  of 
her  intellectual  power  and  advancing  civilization."  We,  with  the  blood 
of  nations  in  our  veins;  as  a  nation,  the  epitome  of  the  world's  nation- 
alities, by  the  magic  of  our  free  institutions,  will  give  McCosh  and  free- 
dom to  the  woijd. 

In  the  land  from  which  you  come,  nobility  is  hereditary  ;  the  recognized 
law  of  social,  civil  and  political  life.  Birth  and  blood  make  and  mark  the 
man,  affix  the  title  and  determine  his  position  in  society.  Here,  nobility 
finds  its  title  and  illustration  in  virtuous  action,  in  grand  achievement,  in 
intellectual  power  and  moral  worth.  Here  we  recognize  the  nobility  of 
honorable  and  honored  succession  ;  and  to-day  we  recognize  you,  sir,  as  the 
honored  successor  of  a  band  of  historic  and  immortal  men,  noblemen,  upon 
whose  brow  God  himself  affixed  the  seal  of  true  nobility — of  manhood  in 
its  full  development  and  impressive  grandeur — a  succession  more  hon- 
orable and  more  enduring  in  its  fame  than  any  recorded  in  the 
volumes  of  heraldry,  or  created  by  royal  decree.  Need  I  name  your 
illustrious  predecessors  in  the  high  office  to  which  you  haw  been  called : 
— Dickinson,  Burr,  Edwards,  Davies,  Finley,  Witherspoon,  Smith  and  oth- 
ers, now  among  the  honored  dead,  or  he  who  is  with  us  now,  the  true- 
hearted,  the  generous  and  sympathetic  friend,  the  scholar  and  the  man, 
President  Maclean,  who  to-day  so  gracefully  lays  aside  the  robes  of  office, 
and  retires  with  the  "God  bless  him"  of  all  the  Alumni  and  friends  of 
the  college.  These  all  were  men  of  giant  intellect,  of  positive  faith,  of 
lofty  patriotism,  midying  energy  and  devoted  service  to  country,  human- 
ity and  God.  The  Alumni,  now  associating  the  past  with  the  present, 
and  recognizing  in  our  new  President  a  teacher  and  scholar  worthy  of  such 
honored  association,  accept  the  congratulations  offered,  and  seal  them  with 
the  pledge  of  renewed  devotion  to  their  Alma  Mater — her  interest,  her 
honor  and  renown. 

It  is  also  a  matter  of  congratulation  that,  while  the  President  elect 
comes  to  us  in  all  the  freshness  of  vigorous  manhood,  in  the  fullness  and 
strength  of  a  cultivated  and  matured  intellect,  he  has  brought  with  him  a 
hear-t  warm  and  true  to  all  the  generous  sympathies  of  humanity,  that  can 


13 

hold  companioiiphip  with  intellect,  that  can  soften  the  stern  dignitj'oF  offi- 
cial position,  and  blend  in  harmony  the  gentle  and  severe;  unite,  without 
compromise,  the  President  of  the  college  with  the  guardian,  companion 
and  friend  of  the  student,  a  heart  that  can  meet  the'lieart  of  the  young, 
feel  its  responsive  throbs,  and  then,  with  the  magic  touch  of  hand  to  hand 
true  as  the  heart,  cause  him  to  feel  his  manhood"  and  love  the  one  that 
rules  by  love — a  power  greater  than  official  authority — the  secret  and  cen- 
tre of  true  administr  tive  abilit}'.  The  recognition  of' a  student  by  friendly 
greeting  frotn  President  and  Professor,  the  honest  shake  of  his  hand,  with 
a  heart  in  it,  is  a  power  in  the  government  of  a  college  greater  than  bolts 
or  bars,  by-laws  or  tutors,  reprimands  or  expulsion.  This  heart  power  will 
govern  our  Alma  Mater. 

_  We  arc  standing  to-day  in  the  midst  of  thronging  and  touching  memo- 
ries. The  jiast — solemn  in  its  silence,  impressive  in  i)s  history— attends 
us  here.  ^^The  present— with  its  living,  rushing  energies,  its  "audacious 
activities" — is  ours,  and  bids  us  onward.  The  future — rich  in  events  that 
await  the  development  of  coming  years— grand  in  its  i-elations  to  the  pre- 
sent and  the  pist,  takes  u*p  the  word  "onward,"  and  points  significantly 
from  the  known  to  the  unknown,  to  be  revealed  in  mightier  achievement 
than  the  past  can  boast. 

Mind  moves,  as  does  the  world.  We  live,  not  in  an  ideal  age,  but  in  an 
age  of  ideas— of  grand,  progressive  thought,  developing  the  practical  and 
the  real,  the  spiritual  and  the  free.  Thus,  while  science  and  art,  with 
wondrous  eneigy,  despite  ocean  depths,  tie  with  the  electric  wire  continents 
together,  science,  literature  and  Christianity,  with  mightier  jwwer,  bind 
heart  to  heart  and  nation  to  nation  ;  and  while  thrones  are  trembling  and 
sceptres  falling  from  the  hands  of  profligate  rulers,  speed  the  day  wlien 
earth's  empires,  united  under  the  banner  of  the  Cross,  shall  acknowledge 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  and  God,  the  Father  of  all,  as  the  "King  of 
Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords."  Again,  in  the  nanie  of  the  Alumni,  we'ac- 
cept  the  congratulations  tendered,  renew  our  pledge,  and  pass  over  to  his- 
tory the  doings  of  this  hour. 

The  oaths  of  ofSce  were  then  administered  to  the  President 
elect  by  the  Hon.  Abraham  0.  Zabriskie,  LL.  D.,  of  the  class 
of  1825,  Chancellor  of  New  Jersey.  The  President  elect  was 
presented  to  the  Chancellor  by  the  Hon.  Daniel  Haines,  of  the 
class  of  1820,  and  the  Hon.  Charles  S.  Olden,  Ex-Governors 
of  New  Jersey  and  members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 

Before  administering  the  oath  the  Chancellor  remarked  :  "  In 
welcoming  you  to  our  country  and  State  we  take  the  pledge 
usual  on  such  occasions."  The  oaths  to  support  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  the  Constirution  of  New  Jersey,  and 
to  administer  the  affairs  of  the  College  in  accordance  with  its 
constitution  and  laws,  were  then  taken  with  uplifted  hand, 
after  which  President  McCosh  signed  the  Charter.  When 
the  Dr.  stepped  forward  to  affix  his  signature  to  the  roll  of 
Presidents,  the  hoys  made  the  roof  ring  with  th3ir  huzzas, 
and  the  peculiar  Nassau  "rocket,"  which  was  performed  with 
more  eflfect  there   than  we  have  ever  before  heard. 

Music,  "  Te  Deum  Laudamus." 


14 

Tlie  Chiirter  and  Keys  of  the  College  were  then  delivered  by 
Dr.  Maclean  to  his  successor  in  office,    in  an   affecting   speech 
The  venerable  retiring  President  was  ranch  embarrassed  by  his* 
deep  eraorion,  in  which  the  whole    assembly   manifestly   sympa- 
thized.     The  scene  was  exceedingly  impressive. 

DR.  Maclean's  address. 

3Ir.  Preddmt: — In  the  name  of  the  Trustees  of  the  College  of  New 
Jersey,  and  by  their  authority,  I  deliver  to  you  the  keys  of  this  Institu- 
tion, the  original  ('barter,  and  also  copies  of  the  Charter  as  amended  and 
of  the  Laws. 

The  obvious  design  of  this  ceremony  is  to  declare  publicly,  by  a  signifi- 
cant act,  as  well  as  in  words,  that  you  are  fully  invested  with  all  the  pow- 
ers, privileges,  and  prerogatives  which  pertain  to  the  President  of  the 
College;  and  that  in  the  discbarge  of  your  official  duties  you  are  to  take 
the  Charter  and  the  Laws  for  your  authority  and  guide. 

While  it  is  the  duty  of  the  President  of  the  College  to  see  that  the  stu- 
dents are  properly  instructed  in  the  several  departments  of  knowledge 
endjraced  in  tlie  prescribed  course,  and  tliat  the  rules  of  the  College  are 
duly  observed  by  all  concerned,  it  is  more  especially  incundjent  upon  him 
to  have  the  oversight  of  the  religious  instruction,  to  guard  the  morals  of 
the  students,  and  their  faith  in  Christ.  For  these  the  Laws  make  him 
personally  responsible,  and  in  so  doing  they  accord  fully  with  the  aim  of 
the  pious  and  excellent  men  who  laid  the  foundation  of  our  College,  and 
sought  thereby  to  promote  the  cause  of  our  blessed  Kedcemer  and  the 
welfare  of  our  race,  by  the  erection  of  an  Institution  for  the  advancement  , 
of  true  religion  and  sound  learning. 

In  the  instruction  and  government  of  the  College,  you  will  have  able 
and  learned  colleagues,  upon  whose  co-operation  you  may  confidently  rely  ; 
and  who  will  gladly  aid  you  in  securing  for  the  youth  committed  to  your 
care  a  thorough,  liberal,  and  a  christian  education.  It  is  our  earnest  and 
fervent  prayer,  that,  in  discharging  the  duties  of  your  great  and  important 
trust,  you  may  ever  have  the  guidance  and  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and 
that  your  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  College  may  be  marked  with 
signal  ability  and  success.  At  such  success.no  one  will  rejoice  more  than 
your  immediate  predecessor  in  office,  who  bids  you  welcome  to  this  scene 
of  your  futur(\  and  of  his  past  labours. 

At  the  conclusion,  they  greeted  each  other  with  a  warm 
shake  of  the  hand,  and  again  the  applause  was  deafening. 

The  ceremonies  of  the  installation  having  been  completed, 
President  McCosh  proceeded  to- deliver  his  Inaugural  Address. 

After  the  delivery  of  the  Address,  the  Rev.  George  W.  Mus- 
grave,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  offered  the  concluding  P)ayer  ;  the  audi- 
ence joined  in  singing  the  Doxology,  llTt'i  Psalm,  and  the 
benediction  was  pronounced  by  Rev.  Dr.  Isaac  Ferris,  Cl:an- 
cellpr  •  of  the    University  of  New  York. 

The  exercises  continued  for  about  three  and  a-half  hours,  and 
were  replete  with  interest  throughout. 


15 
INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

Theme — academic  teaching  in  Europe. 

IIow  does  it  come  that  with  so  many  superior  men  in  America  I  have  been  in- 
vited to  become  President  of  Princeton,  is  a  question  which  I  have  often  been 
putting  to  myself  tliese  last  few  months,  without  being  able  to  find  a  satisfacto- 
ry answer.  So  I  think  it  best  to  "give  it  up"  and  turn  to] inquiries  which  have 
no  personal  bearing. 

But  before  doing  so,  I  feel  bound  to  say  that  the  very  fact  of  your  calling 
me  to  this  high  office  is  a  proof  that  you  have  no  jealousy  of  the  old  country.  It 
is  one  of  the  motives  impelling  me  to  tear  myself  from  the  land  which  I  so  much 
loved  and  to  come  to  this  country,  which  I  will  not  leve  the  less  because  I  loved 
and  do  still  love  the  one  I  have  left,  that  I  may  labor  to  bring  the  two  nations 
on  which  the  future  welfare  and  progress  of  the  world  do  so  much  depend  into 
warmer  friendshij)  and  closer  fellowship.  Are  we  not  one  in  race,  a  somewhat 
mixed  race,  the  main  element  in  both  being  the  Anglo-Saxon,  with  the  love  of 
personal  liberty  and  its  perseverance;  the  same  in  language,  in  literature,  in  re- 
ligion, in  the  love  of  education  and  of  freedom?  Why,  with  such  bonds  uniting 
them,  should  not  the  hearts  of  the  two  great  communities  beat  in  unison  and 
their  hands  combine  in  common  efforts  for  the  Christianization,  the  enlighten- 
ment, and  civilization  of  mankind?  I  do  not  expect  to  be  able  to  further  this 
end  by  politics  (in  which  I  do  not  mean  to  appear  a-?  a  partisan) ;  but  surely  all 
here  may  help  it  by  the  binding  influence  of  literature,  science,  and  philosophy, 
which  are  citizens  not  of  one  country  but  of  the  world;  and,' above  all,  by  the 
attractive  power  of  religion,  which  is  a  citizen  of  Heaven  come  down  to  spread 
peace  among  men.  The  question  for  me  to  answer  is,  what  can  I  do  for  you,  now 
that  I  am  among  you?  The  reply  to  this  question,  in  all  its  width,  must  be 
found  i7i  what  I  do  the  remainder  of  my  life.  But  there  is  a  narrower  and  more 
immediate  inquiry,  what  can  I  do  this  day  in  response  to  the  generous  reception 
you  have  given  me?  All  that  I  can  do  is  to  give  some  information  derived  from 
the  experience  through  which  I  h^ve  passed.  It  so  happens  that  I  have  a  con- 
siderable acquaintance  with  the  universities  of  the  old  world.  I  have  attended 
two  of  the  Scottish  universities,  and  I  believe  I  am  a  graduate  of  three  of  them. 
I  have  visited  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  lived  within  their  walls  with  some  of 
their  most  distinguished  men.  In  Ireland  I  was  officially  connected  with  the 
latest  established  university  in  the  three  kingdoms,  the  Queen's  University  ;  and 
I  had,  incidentally,  means  of  being  acquainted  with  Dublin  University.  I  have 
visited  some  half  a  dozen  colleges  in  Germany,  and  several  in  Switzerland  and 
Holland.  I  feel,  therefore,  that  I  ought  to  know  something  of  academic  teaching 
in  Europe.  And  then  it  also  happens  that  the  question  of  what  academic  edu- 
cation ought  to  be  is  being  keenly  discussed  in  Germany  and  in  England,  Scot- 
land, and  Ireland,  by  some  of  the  most  thoughtful  men  in  these  countries,  such 
as  Dollinger,  Pattison,  Matthew  Arnold,  Seeley,  Farrar,  Lowe,  Grant  Duff,  J.  S. 
Mill,  Tyndall  H.  Spencer,  Huxley,  Lorimer,  Cairnes,  and  many  others.  The 
younger  moving  spirits  in  the  old  colleges  are  alive  to  the  evils  which  have  be- 
come encrusted  round  the  venerable  structures  to  which  they  are  attached,  and 
are  bent  on  having  them  removed.  The  more  enlightened  teachers  in  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  are  becoming  ashamed  of  the  exclusive  study  of  Latin  and  Greek 
or  mathematics,  very  specially  of  their  exaction  of  verse-making,  as  Milton  ex- 
pressed it  long  ago  :  "  Themes  and  verses  wrung  from  poor  striplings,  like  blood 
out  of  the  nose  or  the  plucking  of  untimely  fruit."  In  Scotland  they  have  be- 
come fully  aware  of  the  futility  of  imparting  erudition  by  mere  lectures,  and  have 
introduced  more  of  the  tutorial  and  examination  system.  Even  in  Germany 
some  are  becoming  sick  of  their  drill  system  and  drill  routine,  and  are  longing 
for  an  infusion  of  the  more  fresh  and  manly  training  of  Great  Britain.  The  dis- 
content with  the  present  is  stirring  up  a  strong  desire  to  improve  for  the  future ; 
and  out  of  the  discussions  will  arise,  I  am  satisfied,  great  improvements  in  the 
universities  of  the  old  world.  lam  in  this  lecture  to  carry  you  into  the  very 
heart  of  these  discussions.  It  is  to  be  understood  that  in  doing  this  I  have  no 
design,  avowed  or  secret,  to  revolutionize  3'our  American  colleges  or  to  recon- 
struct them  after  a  European  model.  I  take  up  this  subject  because  it  is  one 
competent  to  me,  and  because  it  enables  me  to  unfold  what  I   believe  to  be  the 


16 

proper  nature  of  collegiate  instruction,  witliout  committing  myself  prematurely 
to  American  questions  in  regard  to  whieli  I  am  seeking  information.  It  fortu- 
nately so  happens  that  I  have  also  visited  upwiirds  of  a  dozen  colleges  and  theo- 
loo-ical  seminaries  in  the  United  States,  and  I  have  seen  enough  of  them  to  be- 
come convinced  that  they  are  not  rashly  to  be  meddled  with.  They  are  the 
spontaneous  out-growth  of  your  position  and  your  intelligence;  they  are  asso- 
ciated with  yourhistory  and  have  become  adjusted  to  your  wants;  and  whatever 
improvements  they  admit  of  must  be  built  on  the  old  foundation.  Still,  the  cir- 
cumstance that  you  have  called  me  from  a  foreign  country  is  a  proof  that  you 
are  anxious  to  receive  suj)posed  good  from  any  and  from  every  quarter.  A  com- 
posite nation  like  yours,  drawing  its  population  from  all  regions,  will  bo  ready 
to  take  knowledge" from  all  lands.  In  regard  to  tlie  elementary  schools,  Europe 
has  more  need  to  look  to  you  than  you  have  to  look  to  Europe.  But  possibly,  in 
regard  to  universities,  America  may  advantageously  look  to  the  old  colleges  of 
Europe,  even  as  these  are  anxiously  looking  to  each  other.  This  is  one  of  the 
European  wars  in  which  1.  would  have  the  United  States  to  take  their  part.  I 
certainly  do  not  ask  you  to  adopt  any  European  method  because  it  is  European, 
or  on  any  other  ground  than  that  it  can  stand  a  sifting  examination  on  its  own 
merits;  and  of  this  I  am  sure,  that  whatever  matter  your  country  receives  from 
others,  it  will  put  upon  it,  as  it  has  done  upon  the  diverse  people,  who  have  come 
within  its  wide  territories,  a  stamp  and  a  character  of  its  own. 

I. — WHAT    IS  THE  IDEA  OR  FINAL  CAUSE  OP  UNIVERSITY  TEACHING  ? 

On  this  point,  which  settles  every  other,  there  is  no  agreement  theoretically 
or  practically.  A  large  and  growing  number,  we  may  call  them  the  realists, 
evidently  think  .that  the  ielos  or  end  of  a  university  is  to  impart  knowledge — 
some  would  say  mere  physical  knowledge — to  fit  students  for  yhe  professions  or 
prepare  them  for  the  business  of  life.  Others,  whom  we  may  call  the  idealists, 
embracing  the  more  elevated  minds,  deem  this  a  low  and  unworthy  aim  for  the 
highest  educational  institutions  of  a  country  to  set  before  them,  and  maintain 
that  it  should  be  the  ambition  of  a  university  to  improve  the  faculties  of  the 
mind,  to  refine  the  taste,  and  to  elevate  the  country  by  raising  up  an  educa- 
ted body  of  men.  who  draw  up  all  who  are  under  their  influence  to  a  higher 
level  where  they  will  breathe  a  purer  atmosphere.  Let  us  endeavor  to  cut  a 
clear  path  through  the  thicket  of  this  C(mtroversy. 

1.  I  do  hold  it  to  be  the  highest  end  of  'a  university  to  educate — that  is, 
draw  out  and  improve  the  faculties  which  God  has  given.  Our  Creator,  no  doubt, 
means  all  things  in  our  world  to  be  perfect  in  the  end  :  but  he  has  not  made 
them  perfect;  he  has  left  room  for  growth  and  progress,  and  it  is  a  task  laid 
on  his  intelligent  creatures  to  be  fellow- workers  with  him  in  finishing  that  work 
which  he  has  left  incomplete  merely  that  they  may  have  an  honorable  work  in 
completing  it.  Education  ought  to  be  a  gymnastic  to  all  our  powers,  not  over- 
lookino- those  of  the  body,  that  every  muscle  may  be  braced  to  its  manly  use; 
that  our  students  may  be  able  to  assume  the  natural  posture,  and  make  proper 
use  of  their  arms  and  limbs,  which  so  many  of  our  best  students  feel,  in  their 
public  appearances' to  be  inconvenient.  It  should  seek  specially  to  stimulate 
and  strengthen,  by  exercising  the  intellectual  powers,  such  as  the  generalizing 
or  classifying  by  which  we  arrange  the  things  that  jiresent  themselves  into 
groups, ordinsite  and  co-ordinate;  and  the  abstracting,  analyzing  capacities  by 
which  we  reduce  the  complexities  that  meet  us  to  a  few  comprehensible  and 
manageable  elements  ;  and  the  reasoning  faculty,  by  which  we  rise  from  the 
known  and  the  present  to  the  unknown  and  remote.  The  studies  of  a  university 
should  be  organized  towards  this  end;  and  all  its  apparatus  of  languages,  sci- 
ences, physical  and  mental,  and  mathematical  exercises,  should  be  means  to 
accomplish  it.  But  then  man  has  other  endowments  than  the  understanding  in 
the  narrow  sense  of  the  term  ;  he  has  a  fancy  capable  of  presenting  brighter 
picture,  than  any  reality  ;  an  imagination  which  will  not  be  confined  within 
the  limits  of  time  and  this  world;  and  a  taste  and  sensibility  which  can  appre- 
ciate beauty  and  sublimity  in  earth  and  sky  ;  and  these  ought  to  be  called  forth 
and  cultivated  in  our  academic  groves,  by  youth  being  made  to  feed  and  led  to 
relish  our  finest  literature,  ancient  and  modern,  in  prose  and  poetry — I  add, 
though  in  doing  so  I  may  seem  to  be  placing  the  ideal  too  high,  by  having  in 
museums  and  art  galleries  the  means  of  displaying  the  cesthetic  qualities  of  the 
creature*  inanimate  and  animate,  in  art  and  nature.  It  is  a  favorite  idea  of  Sir 
Charles  Bell's  that  the  ancient  Greeks  reached  such  incomparable  excellence 
in   their  statuary  by   aiming  to  produce  figures  as  far  removed  from  the  brute 


•  17 

form  as  possible;  certainly  it  should  be  the  aim  of  academic  teaching  to  give  a 
form  to  the  mind  high  above  the  brute  shape,  high  above  the  sordid  and  earthly- 
manifestations  of  humanity.  And  surely  our  universities,  which  are  to  fashion 
the  ruling  minds  of  the  country,  are  never  to  forget  that  man  has  high  emo-  ^ 
tional  susceptibilities  which  should  be  evoked  by  narratives,  by  eloquence,  by 
incidents  presented  in  history,  in  literature  and  in  art;  and  that,  on  the  crown 
upon  his  brow  placed  there  by  his  Maker,  he  has  a  moral  and  spiritual  nature 
which  is  to  be  developed  and  purified  by  the  contemi>lation  of  a  holy  law,  and 
of  a  holy  God  embodying  that  law,  and  of  a  God  incarnate  nnd  with  creature 
Bympathies,  inducing  us  to  draw  nigh  when  otherwise  we  should  be  driven  back 
by  a  consciousness  of  guilt,  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  view  of  the  dazzling  puri- 
ty of  the  Fountain  of  Light  on  the  other.  Now  at  this  entrance  examination 
every  study  seeking  admission  into  the  curriculum  of  a  college  should  be  made 
to  appear.  In  order  to  matriculation  it  must  show  that  it  is  fitted  to  refine  and 
purify  the  noble  faculties  which  God  has  given  us. 

IMPARTING   KNOWLEDGE. 

Under  this,  it  should  be  the  aim  of  a  University  to  impart  knowledge.  I 
say  w/irfe/- <Ais,  in  order  to  impose  the  proper  limit  on  the  principle  heldby  so 
many  in  the  present  day  that  a  college  should  give  itself  mainly,  not  to  langua- 
ges, and  least  of  all  dead  languages,  not  to  metaphysical  jjursuits  which  move 
in  circles  without  advancing,  not  to  such  old  studies  which  are  leading  a  sort  of 
doomed  existence  like  that  of  flies  in  autumn,  but  to  real  knowledge,  to  practical 
knowledge,  by  which  it  turns  out  that  they  mean  the  various  branches  of 
physics  or  quite  as  likely  one  or  two  favorite  departments  of  natural  science. 
Now  I  hold  that  even  for  practical  utility,  for  mere  happiness'  sake,  there  may 
be  a  higher  end  than  the  attainment  of  knowledge;  and  that  is  the  im- 
proving of  those  heaven  bestowed  powers  which  not  only  acquire  knowleclge, 
but  acquire  many  other  things  of  value.  I  maintain  that  there  may  be  other 
knowledge  valuable  as  well  as  scientific  information  ;  and  I  utterly  deny  that, 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  certainly  not  of  the  material  world,  is  the  only 
means  of  training  the  nobler  .parts  of  iiumanity.  The  child  prefers  nuisery 
rhymes  and  Robinson  Crusoe  to  Science  Made  Easy.*  Some  of  the  greatest  minda 
that  shine  as  stars  above  our  world  knew  little  of  physical  science,  such  ag 
Homer  and  Socrates,  and  Plato  and  Dante,  and  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  and 
Edwards  and  Burke,  and  Wordsworth  and  Schiller,  who  yet  found  in  our  world 
sources  of  high  enjoyment  and  a  means  of  ascending  to  their  elevated  spheres. 
I  hold  that  there  are  other  means  besides  the  natural  sciences  of  educating  even 
the  faculties  of  comparison  and  causality,  that  these  may  be  called  into  exer- 
cise quite  as  effectively  by  the  thoughts  and  sentiments  embodied  in  a  cultiva- 
ted language,  and  by  the  study  of  the  noblest  part  of  God's  workmanship  in  this 
lower  world,  the  human  mind — whether  of  its  laws  as  unfolded  by  mental  sci- 
ence, or  in  the  concrete  exhibition  of  human  nature,  in  its  fears  and  hopes,  its 
joys  and  sorrows,  its  struggles  and  its  triumphs,  in  countries  remote  and  near, 
in  ages  past  and  present,  as  detailed  in  travel,  in  history  and  biography,  or  by 
representations  in  poetry,  in  eloquence,  in  the  fine  arts,  and,  most  truthfully  of 
all,  in  the  inspired  record. 

But  then  it  should  be  frankly  acknowledged  and  publicly  proclaimed  that 
science,  that  is,  observational  science ;  that  the  knowledge  of  nature,  that  is, 
of  the  works  of  God — is  an  imj^ortant  means  of  cultivating  those  ])owers  with 
which  the  God  of  nature  has  endowed  us ;  for  they  show  us  how  to  observe  and 
how  to  arrange  the  ol>jects  with  which  we  are  surrounded,  and  as  we  do  so  we 
come  to  see  properties  and  beauties  before  overlooked,  and  become  more  inter- 
ested in  them  and  acquire  a  friendship  for  them.  They  show  us  how  to  gather 
the  law  from  the  scattered  particulars  that  present  themselves ;  how  by  the 
necessary  "  rejections  and  exclusions,"  as  Bacon  says,  to  draw  out  the  essential 
from  the  indifferent ;  how  to  reach  the  truth  and  consistency  among  discordant 
and  apparently  contradictory  appearances  ;  where  to  lay  aside  prepossessions 
and  anticipations, and  how  to  make  an  "  inquisition"  of  nature;  to  catch  her 
when  Proteus-like,  she  is  anxious  to  escape,  and  make  her  reveal  her  secrets. 
These  are  not  only  the  true  means  of  acquiring  knowledge,  but  the  fittest  for 
exercising  and  giving  energy  to  the  faculties,  and  of  acquiring  intellectual  ha- 
bits of  patience  and  penetration,  useful  in  every  kind  of  inquiry,  speculative  and 
practical.  The  old  school-master  adage,  that  it  is  of  no  consequence  what  the 
faculties  be  employed  about  providing  they  are  employed  and  thereby  disci-* 
pliued,  is  a  false  one.     Some  have  gone  so  far  as  to  say  that  lio  matter  whether  I 


18 

• 

the  knowledi^e  thus  acquired,  say  the  writing;  of  Latin  verses,  be  of  any  use  in 
the  future  life  or  no  :  no  matter  how  dull  and  crabbed  the  work,  how  harsh  tlie 
grindstone  on  which  the  mind  is  ground,  provided  thereby  the  faculties  are 
sharpened  for  use.  These  persons  do  not  see  that  the  mental  powers  are  not 
healthily  exercised,  and  are  not  likely  to  be  invigorated  and  refreshed  v/licu 
engaged  in  unprofitable  work,  as  it  were  mounting  the  steps  of  a  ti'ead  mill,  or 
doing  the  whole  in  a  close  mediaeval  atmosphere,  which  in  fact  wastes  the 
strength  and  gives  a  sallow  complexion  to  the  countenance.  Do  you  not  see  the 
terrible  risk  of  wearying  and  disgusting  the  mind  when  it  is  making  its  first 
and  most  hopeful  eftbrts,  and  giving  it  ever  after,  by  the  laws  of  mental  associ- 
ation, a  distaste  for  severe  studies.  True  the  exercise  of  the  mind,  like  that  of 
the  body,  is  its  own  reward  ;  but  both  are  most  apt  to  be  undertaken  when 
there  is  some  otherwise  pleasant  or  j)rofitable  object  in  view  ;  and  most  likely 
to  be  repeated  when  we  have  a  sense  of  gratitude  for  the  good  we  have  received. 
If  after  we  have  walked  so  hard  we  see  and  find  nothing  of  value,  if  we  are  re- 
quired to  labor  for  that  which  profiteth  not,  to  fight  as  one  that  beatcth  the  air, 
the  issue  is  not  likely  to  be  refreshing  and  give  life  and  hope,  bnt  ennui  and 
unconquerable  aversion  to  exertion.  I  hold  that  every  study  should,  as  far  as 
possible,  leave  not  a  distaste  but  a  relish  on  the  palate  of  the  young,  so  that  they 
may  be  inclined  to  return  to  it.  However  it  may  have  been  in  the  dark,  or 
rather  as  I  would  call  them  the  twilight  ages,  when  only  a  few  departments  of 
real  knowledge  could  bt  discerned,  and  men  had  to  make  the  best  of  the  availa- 
ble material,  it  is  not  imperative  now  to  resort  to  profitless  studies  when  such 
rich  and  fertile  fields  are  evidently  lying  all  around  us.  Our  Lord's  test  appli- 
ed to  religion  admits  of  an  application  to  study,  namely,  that  it  brings  ibrth 
fruits.  Faith  may  often  be  more  valuable  than  works,  but  is  by  works  it  is 
to  be  tried  to  see  if  it  is  genuine,  and  by  works  faith  is  made  perfect;  so  it  is  by 
profitable  work  that  the  faculties  are  called  forth  and  elevated.  Bacon  adopted 
our  Lord's  distinction  and  applied  it  to  science  ;  not  holding  (as  those  who  do 
not  understand  religion  misunderstand  him)  that  practical  fruits  are  better  than 
knowledge,  but  that  knowledge  cannot  be  genuine  when  it  does  not  yield  such 
fruits.  So,  using  the  same  distinction,  I  hold  that  in  study,  while  the  true  end 
is  the  elevation  of  the  faculties,  they  never  will  be  improved  by  what  is  in  itself 
useless,  or  found  to  be  profitless  in  the  future  life.  And  I  am  prepared  to  show 
that  the  sciences,  physical  and  moral,  not  only  supply  nutriment  and  strength 
to  the  intellect,  they  give  life  to  it.  It  has  been  proved  by  recent  science  that 
the  food  we  eat,  got  from  the  animal  and  the]^lant,  not  only  gives  nourishment 
to  the  frame,  but  by  the  force  derived  from  that  great  source  of  force,  the  sun, 
furnishes  the  heat  which  ke<!ps  the  body  warm  and  vital;  so  knowledge,  which  is 
power  derived  from  the  divine  source  of  all  power,  not  only  communicates 
strength  to  the  mind,  but  imparts  fire  to  kindle  a  noble  enthusiasm,  and  motive 
to  set  us  forth  in  our  pursuits  when  we  know  we  shall  in  no  wi&e  lose  our  re- 
ward. Science  discloses  not  only  a  utility  but  a  beauty  in  objects  which,  to  the 
vulgar,  appear  dull  aud'  debasing  ;  shows  that  there  is  a  loveliness  in  every  work 
that  God  has  made,  even  in  the  skeleton  of  rattling  bones  from  which  the  un- 
initiated shrink,  even  in  the  insect  crawling  in  the  clay  from  which  they  fiee  ; 
a  beauty  fitted  to  call  forth  admiration  and  love,  and  in  the  hearts  of  the  pious 
adoration  and  praise. 

ON  PROFESSIONAL  INSTRUCTION. 

3.  It  may  be  the  aim  of  a  university  to  give  professional  instruction.  This 
indeed  should  alwaj's  be  esteemed  a  lower  end,  not  indeed  an  unworthy,  bu 
still  an  inferior  end,  that  is,  subordinate  to  the  improvement  of  the  mind  ;  and 
if  we  make  it  supreme  we  are  turning  things  upside  down,  and  putting  upper- 
most the  limbs  instead  of  the  head,  which  ought  to  subordinate  and  guide  the 
whole.  It  is  certainly  not  the  function  of  a  university  to  make  its  students 
artisans,  or  merchants,  or  manufacturers,  or  farmers,  or  shipowners  ;  the  practi- 
cal knowledge  required  by  such  may  best  be  got  from  practical  men  in  shops 
end  fields  and  warerooms  and  offices.  Still,  as  science  aids  art  and  perfects  it, 
so  a  college  by  teaching  the  sciences  may  fit  its  students,  not  it  may  be  for  the 
ordinary  avocations  of  those  employments,  but  for  inventing  new  instruments 
and  finding  improvefments,  and  by  its  whole  training  it  lays  up  enjoyments  de- 
nied to  the  uneducated.  But  in  order  to  accomplish  even  such  ends  as  these  a 
colIege«should  never  come  down  from  its  high  position  to  be  a  mere  instructor 
in  the  mechanical  arts  or  in  shop  and  office  work.  Whatever  branches  it  teaches 
it  should  teach    as  sciences  and  in   a  literary  academic   spirit,  so  as  to  impart 


19 

to  those  members  of  those  professions  who  come  within  our  precincts  a  thorough- 
ly scientific  acquaintance  with  their  subjects  so  that  they  may  improve  the 
trades  and  increase  their  resources,  while  they  carry  with  them  an  elevation  of 
tone  which  will  keep  the  meanest  work  in  which  they  require  to  engage  from 
being  felt  a  degradation.  And  then  there  are  walks  of  life,  such  as  the  learned 
pi-ofessions,  those  jireparing  for  which  require  to  know  literature  and  science  ; 
and  certainly  to  these  the  instruction  given  should  be  of  a  iihilosophic  cliaracter 
to  fit  them  for  entering  in  an  intelligent  manner,  and  with  a  rich  furniture  of 
fundamental  and  established  principles,  upon  their  professional  studies.  But 
the  different  branches  admitted  into  the  university  being  so  taught,  it  may  be 
allowable  for  the  student  to  give  a  preference  to  those  which  may  assist  him  in 
his  professional  pursuits.  Thus,  those  who  are  intended  for  theology  might  le- 
gitimately and  properly  show  a  partiality  for  the  language  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, or  for  mental  science  which  brings  them  into  such  intimate  connection 
with  the  great  truths  of  religion  ;  and  a  medical  student  might  draw  lovingly  • 
towards  chemistry  or  physiology ;  while  the  lawyer  might  give  less  attention  to 
other  subjects  to  undertake  a  more  special  study  of  political  economy.  All  this 
is  in  entire  harmony  with  the  idea  of  a  university  whose  office  it  is  to  train  the 
powers,  but  which  may  do  so  by  anything  which  is  fitted  to  elevate  and  refine 
the  miL.d. 

PROMOTION    OF    LITERATURE    AND    SCIENCE. 

4.  It  should  be  the  aim  of  a  university  to  promote  literature  and  science,  and 
by  these  and  by  its  pupils  to  raise  the  whole  commur-ity.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Patti- 
eon,  of  Oxford,  would  have  his  university  look  on  the  teaching  vocation  as  a 
subordinate  one,  and  devote  its  splendid  revei.ues  to  make  its  colleges  houses  for 
a  "  professional  class  of  learned  and  scientific  men  ;  "  homes  for  the  life  study 
of  the  highest  and  most  abstruse  parts  of  knowledge."  This  is  carrying  an  idea 
which  has  some  truth  in  it  too  far.  I  am  not  sure  that  the  healthiest  scholar- 
ship or  the  highest  science  would  be  promoted  by  the  men  who  might  be  selec- 
ed,  no  matter  on  what  principle  of  candidature  and  election,  to  these  ofl'ices  of 
leisure  and  emolument,  which  would  tend,  I  fear,  to  become  places  of  ease  and 
laziness,  possibly  of  obstruction  to  activity  and  independence  of  thought,  or 
whether  the  men  would  best  accomplish  the  end  by  being  formed  into  an  exclusive 
community.  Of  this  I  am  sure  that  the  people  of  this  country,  and  of  every 
country,  will  insist  on  its  universities  being  primarily  the  educators  of  its  more 
promising  youths  destined  for  the  higher  walks  of  life.  Still,  those  who  are  plac- 
ed in  the  offices  of  a  university  should  aim  at  something  more  than  being  mere- 
ly the  teachers  of  a  restricted  body  of  young  men.  The  youths  who  are  under 
them  and  who  look  up  to  them  will  be  grealy  stimulated  to  study  by  the  very 
circumstance  that  their  professor  is  a  man  of  wide  sympathies  and  connections 
with  the  literature  or  science  of  the  country  generally  or  of  other  countries.  It 
was  thus  that  the  Scottish  professors  of  last  century,  such  as  Adam  Smith  and 
Reid  and  Stewart  and  Black  and  Munro  and  Playfair,  did  so  much  to  promote 
their  favorite  departments,  political  economy  and  mental  philosophy  and  cer- 
tain branches  of  physics.  It  was  thus  that  Newton,  Lucasian  professor  of  mathe- 
matics at  Cambridge,  published  the  Principia,  and  made  his  university  and 
his  college  famous  for  all  time.  It  is  thus  thatjin  our  day  in  Germany  every  pro- 
fessor labors  to  bring  forth  every  year  or  two  the  products  of  his  studies  in  a  work 
which  may  add  to  the  permanent  knowledge  of  mankind  in  some  department 
wide  or  narrow.  The  applications  of  science  and  the  good  uses'of  literature  may 
be  found  elsewhere  in  our  workshops  and  schools  and  lighter  literature,  but 
where  should  we  expect  to  find  our  highest  scholarship  and  profoundest  science 
but  in  our  colleges,  with  their  leisure,  their  independence,  and  the  quiet  stimulus 
which  they  furnish.  Aiid  then  the  glory  of  every  Alma  Mater  consists  in  her 
children,  "  as  arrows  in  the  hands  of  a  mighty  man  ;  "  "  happy  is  he  that  hath 
his  quiver  full  of  them  ;  they  shall  not  be  ashamed,  but  they  shall  speak  with 
the  enemies  in  the  gate."  It  should  be  the  ambition  of  every  college  to  send 
forth  a  body  of  educated  men  who, -as  ministers,  as  lawyers,  as  physicians,  as 
private  gentlemen,  or  in  the  public  service,  or  as  engaged  in  business  which 
their  character  and  refinement  elevate,  are  spreading  around  them  consciously 
or  unconsciously  a  civilizing  and  humanizing  influence,  making  learning  re- 
spected because  respectable,  and  spreading  a  thirst  for  culture.  Such  a  radiat- 
ing power  is  especially  needed  in  our  day  when  there  is  such  devotedness  to 
the  practical  and  money-making  pursuits,  to  what  are,  translating  a  German 
phrase,  the  "  bread   and  butter   sciences ; "  and  we  need  it  to  counteract  the 


20 

coarseness,  the  earthliness,  the  clayiness  thus  engendered,  and  to  set  before  the 
country  higher  and  more  generous  ends.  God  shows  in  all  his  works  that  He 
sets  a  value  not  only  on  base  utility  but  on  beauty  and  ornament — you  see  it  in 
that  lily  so  adorned,  in  that  dome  of  heaven  spangled  with  stars.  I  sujipose  tliat 
in  this  country  your  eoal  and  iron,  your  earth  and  oil,  are  after  all  more  valua- 
ble than  your  precious  metals ;  but  since  God  hath  deposited  them  in  your  soil 
you  would  not  part  with  your  silver  and  your  gold.  So  you  should  see  that  with  all 
your  other  attainments,  with  your  general  intelligence  and  your  eminence  in 
the  practical  arts,  you  have  also  the  highest  learning  and  science.  Your  col- 
leges, in  relation  to  the  lower  education,  should  rise  like  towers  and  steeples  out 
of  our  towns  and  villages,  like  hills  and  mountains  out  of  our  plains.  A  college 
like  Princeton  should,  as  Athens  and  Alexandria  were  in  ancient  times,  be  an 
ihtellectual  metropolis  whence  a  refining  influence  goes  down  to  the  provinces, 
I  magnify  mine  office.  A  professor  should  be  like  the  central  sun  with  planets 
circulating  around  it,  and  each  of  them  a  centre  round  which  other  bodies  re- 
volve; so  a  professor  by  himself,  and  by  hia  pupils  and  their  labors,  may  reach 
in  his  influence  to  the  most  distant  hamlet  in  the  country  through  which  his 
students  are  scattered. 

II. WnAT  SHOULD  BE  THE  BRANCHES  TAUGHT. 

Should  they  be  many  or  few?  Should  they  be  old  or  new,  or  both?  These 
are  the  vague  questions  put,  and  the  answers  have  been  as  vague.  Let  us  seek 
to  clear  the  way. 

1.  I  am  prepared  to  vindicate  the  high  place  which  has  hitherto  been  allotted 
to  languages  in  all  the  famous  colleges  of  the  Old  World  and  the  New,  though  I 
cannot  defend  the  exclusive  place  which  has  been  given  them  in  some.  Without 
entering  upon  the  psychological  question  whether  the  power  of  thinking  by 
means  of  symbols  be,  or  be  not,  an  original  faculty  of  the  mind ;  or  the  physio- 
logical one,  whether  its  seat,  as  M.  Broca  thinks  he  has  proven,  be  in  the  left 
hemisphere  of  the  brain,  especially  in  the  jwsterior  part  of  the  third  frontal  con-  ■ 
volution  of  the  left  anterior  lobe — I  am  prepared  to  maintain  that  it  is  a  natural 
gift,  early  appearing  and  strong  in  youth.  You  see  it  in  the  young  child  acqui- 
ring its  language  so  spontaneously,  and  delighting  to  sing  its  vocables  the  live 
long  day  ;  in  the  boy  of  nine  or  ten  years  of  age,  learning  Latin,  when  be  could 
not  master  a  science  quite  as  quickly  as  the  man  of  mature  age.  Now,  in  the 
systematic  training  of  the  mind  we  should  not  set  ourselves  against,  but  rather 
fall  in  with,  this  natural  tendency  and  faculty.  Boys  can  acquire  a  language 
when  they  are  not  able  to  wrestle  with  any  other  severe  study  ;  and  why  should 
they  not  be  employed  in  what  they  are  capable  of  doing?  There  are  persons 
forever  telling  us  that  children  should  be  taught  to  attend  to  "  things"  rather 
than  "  words."  But  then  words  are  "  things"  having  an  important  place  in  our 
bodily  organization  and  bodily  structure,  in  both  which  the  power  of  speech  is 
one  of  the  things  that  raise  us  above  the  brutes.  And  then  it  can  be  shown  that 
it  is  mainly  by  language  that  we  come  to  get  a  knowledge  of  things.  This  arises 
not  merely  from  the  circumstance  that  we  get  by  far  the  greater  part  of  our 
knowledge  from  our  fellow-men  through  speech  and  working,  but  because  it  is 
in  a  great  measure  by  words  that  we  are  induced,  nay,  compelled,  to  observe,  to 
compare,  to  abstract,  to  analyze,  to  classify,  to  reason.  How  little  can  we  know 
of  things  without  language?  how  little  do  deaf  mutes  know  of  things  till  they 
are  taught  the  use  of  signs?  I  have  known  some  of  them  considerably  advan- 
ced in  life  who  not  only  did  not  know  that  the  soul  was  immortal,  they  did  not 
know  that  the  body  was  mortal.  Children  obtain  by  far  the  larger  part  of  their 
information  from  parents,  brothers,  sisters,  nurses,  teachers,  companions,  and 
fellow-men  and  women  in  general,  and  this  comes  by  language.  But  this  is  af- 
ter all  the  least  part;  it  is  in  understanding  and  using  intelligently  words  and 
sentences  that  children  are  first  taught  to  notice  things  and  their  properties,  to 
discern  their  difterence  and  perceive  their  resemblances.  Nature  presents  us 
only  with  particulars  which,  as  Plato  remarked  long  ago,  are  infinite,  and  there- 
fore confusing,  and  the  language  formed  by  our  forefathers  and  inherited  by  us 
puts  them  into  intelligible  groups  for  us.  -Nature  shows  us  only  concretes,  that 
is,  objects  with  their  varied  qualities,  that  is,  with  complexities  beyond  the  pen- 
etration of  children  ;  and  language  makes  them  intelligible  by  separating  the 
parts  and  calling  attention  to  common  qualities.  Nouns,  verbs,  adjectives,  con- 
junctions, and  other  parts  of  speech  in  a  cultivated  tongue,  introduce  us  to 
things,  as  men  have  thought  about  them  in  the  use  of  their  faculties, 
and    combined    them    for    general    and    for    special    purposes;  primarily    no 


21 

doubt  for  their  own  use  and  advantage;  but  turning  out  to  be  a  val- 
uable inheritance  to  their  children,  who  get  access  to  things  with  the 
thoughts  of  ages  superinduced  upon  them,  as  it  wfre  set  in  a  frninework  for  us 
that  we  may  study  them  more  easily.  In  the  phiases  of  a  civilized  tongue  we 
have  a  set  of  discriminations  and  comparisons  spontaneously  fashioned  by  our 
ancestors,  and  often  more  fresli  and  subtle,  always  more  immediately  and  pratically 
useful,  than  those  of  the  most  advanced  science.  Then  a  new  language  intro- 
duces us  to  new  generalizations  and  new  abstractions  made,  it  may  be,  by  a  peo- 
ple of  a  different  genius  and  differently  situated,  and  thus  widens  and  varies  our 
view  of  things,  and  saves  us  from  being  the  slaves  of  the  words  of  our  own  ton- 
gue ;  saves  us,  in  fact,  from  jiutling  words  for  things,  putting  counters  for  money 
(as  Hobbes  says),  which  we  sliould  be  apt  to  do  if  we  knew  only  one  word  for  the 
thing.  Charles  V.  uttered  a  deep  truth,  whether  he  understood  it  or  no,  when 
he  said  that  a  man  was  as  many  times  a  man  as  he  acquired  a  new  tongue. — ■ 
Then,  in  learning  a  language  grammatically,  whether  our  own  or  another,  we 
have  to  learn  or  gather  rules  and  judicii  usly  ajiply  them  ;  to  see  the  rule  in  the 
example  and  collect  the  rule  out  of  the  example  ;  and  in  all  this  the  more  rudi- 
mentary intellectual  powers,  not  only  the  memory,  but  the  apprehension  and 
quickness  of  perception  and  discernment,  are  as  efl'ectually  called  forth  and  dis- 
ciplined as  by  any  other  stu<lj'  iu  which  the  youthful  mind  is  capacitated  to 
engage. 

ON    THr-    AN'CIKNT    AND    MODBllN    TONGUES. 

I  have  been  struggling  to  give  expression  in  a  few  sent?nces  to  thoughts  which 
it  would  require  a  whole  lecture  fully  to  unfold.  Such  considerations  seem  to 
me  to  prove  that  we  should  continue  to  give  to  languages  an  important,  I  have 
not  said  exclusive,  place  in  the  younger  collegiate  classes.  Among  languages 
a  choice  must  be  made,  and  tliere  are  three  which  liave  such  claims  that  every 
student  should  be  instructed  in  them  ;  and  there  are  others  which  liave  claims 
on  those  who  have  special  aptitudes  and  destinations  ifi  life.  There  is  the 
Latin,  important  in  itself,  and  from  the  part  which  it  has  played.  It  has  an 
educational  value  from  the  breadth,  regularity,  and  logical  accuracy  of  its 
structure,  giving  us  a  fine  specimen  of  grammar,  from  its  clear  expression  and 
from  its  stately,  methodical  march — liketliatof  a  Roman  army.  It  is  of  in- 
estimable value  from  its  literature,  second  only  to  that  of  Greece  in  the  old  world, 
and  to  that  of  England  and  Germany  in  modern  times;  and  a  model  still  to 
be  looked  to  by  English  and  by  Germans  if  they  would  make  progress  as  they 
have  hitherto  done.  Then,  besides  its  intrinsic  worth,  it  has  a  historical  value 
as  the  mother  of  several  other  European  languages,  as  the  Italian,  the  French, 
the  Spanish,  and  Portuguese,  to  all  of  which  it  is  the  best  introduction,  and  as 
one  of  the  venerated  grandmothers  of  our  own,  ready  to  tell  us  of  its  descent,  its 
lineage,  and  its  history  ;  and,  let  us  not  forget,  the  transmitter  of  ancient  and 
eastern  learning  to  modern  times  and  western  countries;  and  as  the  common 
language  for  ages  in  literature,  y)hilosophy,  law  and  theology,  and  thus  contain- 
ing treasures  to  which  every  educated  man  requires  some  time  or  other  to  have 
access.  Then  there  is  the  Greek,  the  most  subtle,  delicate,  and  expressive  of  all 
old  languages,  embodying  the  fresh  thoughts  of  the  most  intellectual  people  of 
the  ancient  world,  and  containing  a  literature  which  is  unsurpassed,  perhaps 
not  equalled,  for  the  loveliness,  purity,  and  grace  of  its  poetry;  for  the  com- 
bined firmness  and  flexibility  of  its  prose,  as  seen  for  instance  in  Plato,  wlio  can 
mount  to  the  highest  sublimities  and  go  down  to  the  lowest  fa^niliarities  without 
falling;  like  the  elephant's  trunk,  equally  fitted  to  tear  an  oak  or  lift  a  straw. 
And  it  is  never  to  be  forgotten  that  it  is  the  language  of  the  New  Testament ; 
that  it  was  the  favorite  language  of  the  Reformers.  Luther  said  :  "  If  we  do  not 
keep  up  the  tongues  we  will  not  keep  up  the  Gospel ;  "  and  so  the  stream  is  to  be 
encouragetl  to  flow  on  if  we  would  keep  up  tlie  connection  between  Christianity 
and  its  fountain.  A  nation  studiously  giving  up  its  attention  to  these  tongues 
would  be  virtually  cut  off"  from  the  past,  and  would  be  apt  to  become  stagnant, 
like  a  pool  into  which  no  streams  flow  and  from  which  none  issue,  instead  of  a 
lake  receiving  pure  waters  from  above  and  giving  them  out  below.  These 
languages  differ  widely  from  ours,  but  just  because  they  do  so  they  serve  a  good 
purpose;  letting  us  into  a  diflerent  order  and  styles  of  thought;  less  analytic, 
more  synthetic,  as  it  is  commonly  said ;  more  concrete  as  I  express  it,  that  is,  in- 
troducing us  to  things  as  they  are  and  in  their  natural  connection.  True,  they 
are  dead  languages,  but  then  just  because  they  are  so  we  can  get  a  completed 
biography  of  them ;  and  as  we  dissect  them  they  lie  passive,  like  bodies  under 


22 

the  knife  of  tlie  anatomist.  As  Hobbes  expresses  it,  "  they  have  put  off  flesh 
and  blood  to  put  on  immortality  /  "  they  are  dead  and  yet  they  Jive;  live  in  the 
works  wh'ch  have  been  written  in  them  with  their  diversity  of  Icnowledge,  living 
specially  in  their  literature,  which  is  imperishable — wliioh  for  fitness  of  phrase- 
ology, brevity,  clearness,  directness,  severity,  are  models  for  all  ages  ;  bringing 
us  back  to  simplicity  where  we  should  err  by  extravagance;  and  to  be  specially 
studied  by  the  rising  generation  in  our  time  when  there  is  so  much  of  looseness 
and  inflation,  stump  oratory  and  sensationalism. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  define  it,  but  we  all  know  what  is  meant  by  a  classical 
taste;  there  are  persons  who  seem  to  acquire  its  chaste  color  spontaneously,  as 
the  ancient  Greeks  and  Eomans  must  have  done ;  but  in  fact  it  has  been  niainly 
fostered  by  living  and  breathing  in  the  atmosphere  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome; 
and  our  youths  may  acquire  it  most  readily  by  travelling  to  the  same  region 
where  the  air  is  ever  pure  and  fresh.  I  believe  that  our  language  and  literature 
will  run  a  great  risk  of  hopelessly  degenerating  if  wc  are  not  ever  restrained 
and  corrected  while  we  are  enlivened  and  refreshed  by  looking  to  these  faultless 
n;od:ds.  There  are  other  foreign  languages  which  have  a  claim  on  educated 
m.Mi,  -such  as  the  French,  with  its  delicate  conversational  idiom,  and  the  abstract 
clearness,  amounting  to  transparency,  of  its  })rose ;  and  the  German,  with  its 
profound  common  sense  and  its  noble  literature,  worthy  of  being  placed  along- 
side that  of  ancient  Greece,  and  excelling  it  in  the  revelations  of  the  depths  of 
human  nature.  I  am  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  either  of  these  might,  under 
certain  restrictions,  be  substituted  for  Greek  and  Latin,  provided  always  it  be 
taught  as  Greek  and  Latin  are,  that  is,  as  branches  of  learning,  taught  philologi-  _ 
cally,  taught  so  as  to  illustrate  character  and  history,  and,  above  all,  so  as  to  open 
up  to  us  and  lead  us  to  appreciate  the  literatuie  of  the  countries. 

But,  prior  to  all  these,  and  posterior  to  them,  above  them  all  and  below  them 
all,  is  a  tongue  which  has  an  imperative  claim  on  us,  and  that  is  our  own  tongue, 
the  language  of  the  mother  of  us  all.  Great  Britain,  and  her  colonies,  and  the 
language  of  her  eldest  daughier,  which  should  acknowledge  her  inferiority  only 
in  this,  that  she  is  the  daughter  and  the  other  the  mother.  It  has  a  claim  on 
our  love  and  esteem  because  it  is  our  own  tongue  which  we  learned  at  our. 
mother's  knee,  the  tongue  with  which  we  are  and  must  be  most  familiar;  be- 
cause it  is  in  itself  a  noble  language,  with  roots  simple  and  concrete  striking 
deep  into  home  and  heart  expe;'ience,  and  grafted  on  these,  from  foreign  stocks, 
abstract  terms  for  reflective  and  scientific  use  ;  because  it  has  been  enriched  by 
the  ideas  and  fancies,  the  comparisor.s  and  metaphors  of  men  profound  in  thought 
and  fertile  in  imagination  ;  and  yet  more  because  of  its  manly  and  massive,  its 
rich  and  varied,  literature,  prose  and  poetic,  revolving  round  themes  which  it 
never  entered  into  the  heart  of  Greek  or  Roman  to  conceive.  If  a  Briton  or  an 
Americans  can  study  only  one  language,  let  it  be  the  English.  A  college  youth's 
education  is  incomplete,  though  ho  should  know  all  other  tongues,  if  he  be  ignorant 
of  the  genius  and  literature  of  his  own.  There  should,  I  hold,  be  a  special  class 
for  the  English  language  and  literature  in  every  English  speaking  country.  But 
in  order  that  English  have  a  place  in  a  university,  it  must  fall  in  with  the  spirit 
of  the  place  and  conform  to  its  laws:  it  must  be  taught  as  a  branch  of  learn- 
ing, as  a  branch  of  science  (toissenschaftlich);  it  must  be  traced  up  to  its  roots; 
it  must  be  studied  in  its  formative  growth  and  historical  development ;  and 
secure  that  it  has  a  literature  in  the  future  not  imworthy  of  the  literature  of  the 
past. 

ON    THIC    MATHEMATICAL    STUDIES. 

2.  Mathematics  should  also  constitute  an  essential  part  of  a  college  curriculum, 
and  a  portion  should  be  obligatory  on  every  student.  Over  the  gates  of  every 
college  should  be  written  what  is  said  to  have  been  inscribed  over  the  academy 
in  which  Plato  trught:  "  Let  no  one  who  is  without  geometry  enter  here."  They 
serve  ends  which  cannot  be  effected  by  anj'  other  training.  First,  they  introduce 
youths  early  and  conveniently  to  self-evident  truth.  They  show  that  everything, 
cannot  be  proven  ;  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  priori  principles  founded  in  the 
very  nature  of  things  and  perceived  at  once  by  intuitive  reason.  It  was  to 
mathematics  that  the  great  German  metaphysician  primarily  appealed  in  estab- 
lishing the  existence  of  necessary  truth.  This  is  a  very  important  conviction  to 
have  fixed  in  the  minds  of  young  men,  especially  in  these  times  when  an  attempt 
is  made  to  derive  all  certainty  from  experince,  which  must  ever  be  limited  and 
can  never,  any  more  than  a  stream  can  rise  above  its  fountain,  establish  a  uni- 


23 

versa!  and  necessary  proposition.  Having  seen  that  there  are  a  priori  truths  ni 
mathematics,  the  mind  will  be  better  prepared  to  admit  that  there  are  eternal 
and  unchangeable  principles  lying  at  the  basis  of  morality  and  religion,  and 
guaranteeing  to  us  the  immutable  cliaractcr  of  the  law  and  of  the  justice  of  God. 
These  mathematics  exhibit  to  us  more  clearly  than  any  other  science  the  inter- 
dependence and  connection  of  all  truth,  and  the  links  by  which  premises  and 
conclusion  are  tied  in  the  reasoning  process.  Moreover,  the  study  gives  a  con- 
centration to  the  attention  and  a  logical  consecutiveness  to  the  thoughts,  and  so 
saves  from  that  tendency  to  wandering  and  dissipation  of  mind  which  is  the  ruin 
intellectually  of  thousands.  "For  if  the  wit  be  too  dull  they  sharpen  it,  if  too 
wandering  they  fix  it,  if  too  inherent  in  sense  they  abstract  it."  (Bacon.)  It 
furnishes  the  fittest  discipline  to  brace  the  mind  for  hard  intellectual  work,  and 
has  been  fotind,  in  fact,  an  admirable  training  for  those  professions,  such  as  law, 
in  which  force,  tenacity,  and  close  application  are  required.  These  advantages 
are  altogetlier  independent  of  the  value  of  the  science  as  an  instrimient  of  de- 
duction and  a  verification  of  discovery  in  so  many  departments  of  natural  sci- 
ence— a  use  which  will  be  seen  to  admit  of  ever-widening  application  as  it  comes 
to  be  determined  that  every  department  of  ]>hysical  nature  is  regulated  by  form 
and  quantity,  the  qualities  which  mathematical  science  claims  as  its  own  rich 
possession.  Not  only  so,  but  as  it  was  foiind  long  ago  that  geometry  rules  beauty 
addressed  to  the  ear,  that  is  music,  so  I  believe  it  will  be  ascertained,  as  science 
advances,  that  it  reigns  in  the  beauty  of  form  and  color  addressed  to  the  eye,  and 
so  there  is  a  grand  truth  in  the  old  Platonic  idea  that  God  geometrises.  He 
geometrises  in  all  the  order  and  all  the  loveliness  we  see  in  the  universe.— 
The  withdrawal  of  a  mathematical  training  from  a  college  would  be  equiva- 
lent— to  what  God  has  absolutely  prevented  his  creatures  from  doing  in  the 
universe — to  the  withdrawal  oi  force,  and  would  leave  the  institution  enfeebled 
and  without  the  power  which  binds  the  whole.  But  can  there  be  a  thorough 
education  of  the  mind  merely  by  classics  and  mathematics,  as  the  famous  Cam- 
bridge system  supposes?  I  hold  that  these  n\Aj  be  taught  and  learned  in  the 
most  perfect  manner,  and  yet  a  large  number  of  the  noblest  faculties  of  the 
mind  left  uncalled  forth  and  therefore  uncultivated.  Mixed  with  them  there 
should  be  branches  which  require  students  to  be  more  than  intelligent  recip- 
ients, which  demand  of  them  that  they  put  forth  independent  thought  and 
observation. 

3.  The  physical  sciences  should  have  a  place  in  a  full -orbed  system.  These 
were  not  born  when  universities  were  established,  and  resistence  has  been 
offered  to  their  introduction  on  the  part  of  the  superstitious  supporters  of  the 
old,  especially  the  narrow  partisans  of  classics.  l  ut  they  have  established 
such  claims  on  the  attention,  they  have  been  so  "frugiferous,"  as   Bacon  antici- 

Eated,  that  it  is  now  certain,  whoever  may  oppose,  that  they  must  in  the  future 
ave  a  large  .space  allowed  them:  and  if  uncompromising  resistance  is  contin- 
ued much  longer,  the  stream  will  so  rise  as  to  break  down  the  dam,  that  would 
oppose  it,  and  sweep  away  the  good  which  should  be  retained  with  the  evil 
that  should  be  abandoned.  So  it  is  expedient  in  every  way  to  allow  a  legiti- 
mate outlet  to  these  flowing,  I  will  add,  fertilizing  waters. 

ON  THE    SENSES. 

There  are  certain  of  our  natural  faculties  which  cannot  be  evoked  and  culti- 
vated so  effectively  in  any  other  way  as  being  employed  about  the  works  which 
God  has  made.  From  an  early  period  youth  should  be  taueht  how  to  use  and 
thereby  educate  the  senses  how  to  observe,  and  how  to  gather  and  treasure  up 
facts.  And  physical  science  is  an  instrument  not  merely  for  educating 
the  senses,  it  calls  forth  all  the  faculties  which  discover  relations.  The  facts 
fall  under  the  senses,  but  the  law  which  we  are  ever  striving  to  reach,  the  law 
which  binds  the  facts,  can  be  discovered  and  compreliendod  only  by  the  high- 
er intellectual  powers,  which  divide,  and  construe  and  infer.  As  it  is  out  of  the 
scattered  and  isolated  parts  that  we  have  to  collect  the  law,  to  hen  en  pollois, 
so  the  study  gives  a  discernment  and  a  shrewdness  to  the  mind  admirably  pre- 
paring it  for  taking  its  part  in  the  tangled  afl'airs  of  life.  It  is  one  of  its  special 
advantages  that  it  gives  the  bracing  activity  of  the  chase  as  well  as  the  triumph 
of  the  capture  ;  it  not  only  yields  results,  it  requires  us  to  look  at  th<^  processes 
by  which  these  are  reached;  it  not  only  gives  information,  but,  what  is  equally 
important,  it  teaches  us  to  investigate  ;  it  not  only  imparts  knowledge,  but 
prepares  us  to  acquire  more  by  showing  us  how  to  make  an  inquisition  of  nature; 
not  only  furnishes  frui  t,  but  brings    us  to  the  tree  where  the  Iruit   grows,  and 


24 

where  we  may  continue  pluckmaj:  thus,  even  when  taught  by  a  skillful  teacher, 
it  has  many  of  the  advantages  of  a  self-education.  These  sciences  are  now  be- 
coming very  numerous  and  very  varied.  They  may  be  divided  in  a  variety  of 
ways,  according  to  the  end  we  have  in  view,  but  for  our  educational  purposes 
they  fall  into  two  classes,  according  to  the  capacities  they  incite  nnd  educate. — 
One  of  tliese  groups  has  been  called  the  classificatory  by  Dr.  Whewell  ;  it  pro- 
ceeds on  the  idea  that  this  world  is  a  mundas,  is  a  cosmos  ;  that  there  is  a  hea- 
ven-appointed order  in  nature  which  man  can  discover ;  an  arrangement  with 
due  ordination  and  subordination  in  respect  of  such  qualities  as  form,  C'llor, 
time  and  quantity,  which  it  should  be  ovir  business  to  seize,  and  distribute  the 
innumerable  plants  and  animals  into  kingdoms  and  orders,  and  classes,  and 
genera,  sjiecies  and  varieties.  The  other  grouj)  aims  ratlier  at  finding  internal 
propei-ties  and  causes,  and  may  pass  under  the  generiial  name  of  physics,  em- 
bracing such  branches  as  chemistry  and  natural  pliilosophy,  in  wliich  we  seek 
to  penetrate  into  the  constitution  of  tilings,  and  go  back  from  wliat  presents 
itself  to  what  has  produced  it.  Both  groups  require  more  than  tlie  receptive 
and  reproductive  faculties  :  the  one  requires  us  to  discover  resemblances  and 
analogies,  the  others  calls  forth  the  powers  of  analysis  and  causality.  The 
former  depends  more  on  observation  proper — the  latter  j)rocceds  more  by  exjje- 
riment,  and  tries,  by  torturing  nature  without  paining  her,  to  make  her  disclose 
her  secret  machinery.  Botli  are  inductive  in  their  nature  ;  they  begin  by  the 
gathering  of  facts,  and  would  thence  rise  to  the  law  of  the  facts,  hoping  always 
in  the  end,  when  they  have  discovered  the  law,  to  descend  by  deduction  to  the 
foreknowledge  and  prediction.  They  demand  and  exercise  very  vaiied  mental 
powers,  and  are  thus  profitable,  altogether  independent  of  their  practical  fruits, 
which  are  so  palpably  beneficent  that  they  allure  many  to  the  study  who  would 
never  be  led  by  the  mere  love  of  knowledge. 

ON    THE    STUDY    OF    MENTAL    SCIKNCE. 

4.  It  will  not  be  expected  of  one  who  has  devoted  so  much  attention  to  the 
mental  sciences,  that  h?  should  overlook  them,  or  the  contigu  )us  social  sciences, 
in  speaking  of  the  subjects  which  should  have  a  place  in  a  college  curriculum. 
I  am  prepared  to  show,  in  spite  of  the  scoffs  of  some  of  the  votaries  of  physical 
science,  that  there  are  true  mental  sciences,  such  as  j)sychology,  logic,  etliics, 
and,  let  me  add,  metaphysics,  the  sciem^e  of  first  principles,  and  aesthetics,  or 
what  I  call  kalology,  tlie  science  of  beauty  and  sublimity  ;  that  they  disclose  to 
us  laws  of  great  scientific  beauty,  and  practical  value  :  that  the  study  of  them 
is  fitted  at  once  to  whet  the  acumen  and  widen  the  horizon  of  the  mind;  and 
that  it  is  of  vast  importance  in  the  jiresent  day,  to  save  us,  from  that— 1  will  not 
say  gross,  but,  subtle  materialism  which  is  at  the  spring  tide  in  England,  in  France, 
and  among  certain  classes  in  Germany.  We  have  an  immediate  means  of  knowing 
mind,  just  as  we  have  a  direct  means  of  knowing  matter;  if  we  know  matter 
by  sight,  touch,  taste,  smell,  and  hearing,  we  know  the  varied  operations  of 
mind  in  knowing  and  feeling  by  self-consciousness.  It  is  possible,  then,  to  ob- 
serve the  facts  of  mind,  in  our  own  mind  directly,  and  in  other  minds  by  the  ex- 
pression of  their  inward  states,  in  their  words  and  acts:  and  it  is  possible  to 
analyze  and  classify  the  phenomena,  and  reach  laws  as  settled  as  those  of  natural 
science.  This  has  been  done  with  more  or  less  success  by  many,  beginning  with 
Aristotle,  but  has  been  accomplished  with  special  success  by  the  Scottish  school, 
guch  as  Reid,  Stewart,  and  Hamilton.  Now,  I  hold  that  the  pursuit  after  the 
fugitive  facts  of  mind  ;  the  seizing  of  them  under  their  various  disguises ;  the 
discovery  and  the  expression  of  the  exact  laws,  such  as  those  of  the  senses,  as- 
sociation, memory,  imagination,  comparison,  reasoning ;  the  tracing  of  them  in 
our  own  mind  and  those  of  others,  furnish  exercises  of  subtle  analysis  and 
grasping  synthesis,  and  lead  us  to  distinguish  the  things  that  difler,  and  to  per- 
ceive profound  and  remote  analogies  in  a  way  and  to  an  extent  which  cannot  be 
matched  by  any  other  study.  So  much  for  pyschology  :  and  tlien  we  have  thq 
old  mental  sciences,  which  have  had  a  great  degree  of  certainty  since  the  days 
of  Aristotle.  Thus  we  have  logic  unfolding  the  laws  of  thought  in  apprehend- 
ing, judging,  and  reasoning  generally,  especially  as  emj)loyed  in  weighing  evi- 
dence and  reaching  truth  ;  giving  rules  to  which  the  ultimate  appeal  must  be 
made  in  all  doubtful  matter,  and  supplying  a  police  to  detect  fallacies.  Then 
there  are  ethics,  unfolding  the  laws  of  our  motive  and  moral  nature-,  of  the 
emotions,  the  conscience,  and  the  will ;  showing  how  man  is  swayed  in  motive  and 
in  action;  bringing  us  face  to  face  with  an  eternal  law  guarded  by  a  holy  governor; 
and  coming  down  practically  to  the  responsibilities  and  the  daily  experiences  of 


25 

life.  Scotland  and  Germany  have  got  much  elevation  of  thought  from  continu- 
ing to  give  these  departments  a  high  place  in  their  univer^rities ;  though  tlie 
latter  has  so  far  counteracted  this  by  long  running  after  a  wild  idealism,  which 
in  these  late  years  has  produced  a  reaction  towards  a  materialistic  empiricism. 
It  is  a  grand  defect  in  the  two  great  English  Universities  that  they  have  not 
given  an  avowed  place  to  the  inductive  study  of  the  mind.  True,  Cambridge 
has  always  had  moral  [iliilosophy,  but  it  has  been  jostled  into  a  corner  by  other 
studies,  especially  Mathematics.  Oxford  has  given  a  })laee  to  formal  logic,  and 
to  philosophy  generally,  but  the  latter  has  come  in  by  a  side  door,  by  the  school 
of  Literas.  Humaniores,  where  it  appears  in  an  examination  on  the  Republic  of 
Plato  or  the  ethics  of  Aristotle,  and  takes  the  form  of  the  history  of  philosophy, 
an  important  branch  when  philosophy  itself,  tliat  is  the  inductive  science  of 
the  human  mind,  has  previously  been  taught,  but  without  this,  keeping  as 
far  from  the  human  mind  as  classics  or  niatliematics.  1  believe  that  the  pres- 
ent evil  tendencies  in  these  two  universities,  a  sickly  attachment  to  ritualism 
among  the  weakly  devout,  and  a  rush  to  Comtism  and  materialism  among  another 
class,  embracing  a  large  number  of  the  aspiring  tutors  and  students,  have 
sprung  very  much  from  the  neglect  of  the  philosophy  of  consciousness  so  fitted 
to  generate  an  independence  of  thinking  and  comprehensiveness  of  vision.  I 
am  glad  to  find  that  the  mental  sciences,  and  these  taught  in  a  sound,  that  is 
inductive  manner,  with  a  constant  appeal  to  the  facts  of  our  nature,  have  a  fair 
place  in  the  American  colleges,  and  within  the  sphere  of  my  influence  it  will 
be  my  endeavor  to  sustain  and  defend  them. 

OS    THE    .STUDY    OF    SOCIAL    SCIENCB. 

Closely  allied  to  the  purely  mental  sciences  are  som*^  otliers  which  consider 
mankind  in  their  social  relations,  and  are  therefore  called  social  sciences,  such 
as  political  economy,  jurisj^rudence,  international  law,  and  history,  considered 
as  a  branch  of  science  and  not  a  mere  collection  of  narratives.  1  can  speak  only 
of  one  of  these,  and  that  is  political  economy,  the  science  which  treats  of  the  ac- 
cumulation and  distribution  of  national  wealth.  The  inquiry  caljs  forth  some  of 
the  most  useful  powers  of  the  mind,  such  as  that  of  finding  unity  and  law  in 
complexities  ;  of  arguing  the  true  causes  from  mixed  effects,  and  foreseeing  con- 
sequences in  very  perplexing  circumstances.  It  also  furnishes  a  fine  example 
of  the  joint  inductive  and  deductive  methods.  It  has  a  special  importance  in  a 
nation  like  this  whore  the  government  is  in  the  hands  of  so  many,  and  where  it 
is  of  such  moment  to  create  an  intelligent  public  sentiment,  and  where  wrong 
economical  views  would  issue  in  such  widespread  mischief.  The  study  is  surely 
of  very  particular  value  to  all  who  are  to  guide  public  opinion  by  the  press.  The 
periodical  literature  which  exercises  such  influence  in  this  country  will  never  be 
elevated  till  those  who  supply  it  have  as  a  rule  a  college  education  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  political  science. 

STLDIIM    GENERALE. 

Now  I  hold  that  in  a  university,  Studium  Generale,  there  should  be  representa- 
tives at  least  of  each  of  this  fourfold  division  of  subjects.  And  if  our  years  were  as 
many  as  those  of  the  antediluvians,  or  as  long  as  those  of  the  planet  Jupiter,  I 
would  be  inclined  to  enjoin  all  of  them  on  every  student.  But  the  fatlier  of 
medicine  has  told  us  "  Life  is  short  and  art  is  long,"  and  an  attempt  to  enforce 
all  in  a  course  of  four  years  would  at  best  secure  a  smattering  of  all  without  a 
real  knowledge  of  any,  and  your  magistcr  artium  would  be  a  "jack  of  all  trades 
and  a  master  of  none."  I  say,  if  you  are  to  admit,  as  you  must,  in  justice  as 
well  as  in  expediency,  the  new  branches,  without  excluding  the  old,  then  you 
must  allow  a  choice.  All  should  be  in  the  university,  ojien  to  all,  but  all  should 
not  be  compulsory  on  each.  The  question  tlien  arises,  and  I  believe  it  to  be  the 
most  practical  and  pressing  of  all,  with  whom  should  the  selection  be?  With 
the  university,  that  is  the  governing  body?  or  with  the  students?  My  answer 
is  with  both.  It  should  be  so  far  ruled  by  the  university  as  to  secure"  that  all 
the  branches  be  taught  academically,  taught  scientifically,  and  that  in  order  to 
gain  the  Master's  Degree  every  student  should  go  through  an  enlarged  course, 
a  course  calling  forth  the  various  faculties  and  embracing  representatives  of  the 
four  groups,  languages,  mathematics  with  applications,  physical  and  mental 
science.  I  am  prepared  to  maintain  that  a  university  should  not  give  an  unre- 
stricted choice  to  one  claiming  the  literary  and  scientific  degree;  if  this  were 
done  the  student  would  be  tempted  to  take  the  easiest  subject,  and  the  least 
profitable  because  so  easy  ;  or  adhere  to  the  one  he  had  first  learned,  or  confine 
himself  to  the  one  for  which  he  had  a  taste;  whereas,  the  object  of  a  higher 
education  should  be  to  call  forth  all  the  faculties  and  widen  the  sphere  of  vision. 
In  Germany  where  each  student  chooses  his  own  programme,  I  believe  evils  have 
arisen  from  the  unlimited  license,  though  these  are  lessened  by  the  circumstance 


26 

iliai  lio  Ikis  commonly  a  defined  professional  exanunation  before  him.  There  is 
:i  great  risk  in  these  times,  of  minds  of  great  power  and  strong  taBtes  becoming 
very  narrow  in  fonie  respects,  and  altogether  misshapen  by  the  exclusive  cul- 
ture of  certain  faculties  to  the  neglect  of  others.  We  see  the  fisher  with  broad 
chest  and  brawny  arms,  but  with  amall  thin  limbs  because  the  rowing  has  ex- 
panded one  j)art  of  the  frame  and  allowed  the  others  to  shrink;  so  we  find  great 
classicists,  and  great  physicists,  and  great  mathematicians,  and  great  metaphy- 
sicians, weaker  than  others  when  taken  out  of  their  own  magic  circle,  in  fact, 
silly  and  childish,  and  despising  every  other  department  of  knowledge.  If 
there  are  evils  in  sectarianism  in  religion  there  are  like  evils  in  a  scientific  par- 
tisanship ;  if  it  is  wrong  to  divide  the  body  of  Christ,  it  is  equally  improper  to 
divide  the  body  of  science,  in  which  all  the  menAbers  are  so  intimately  connected 
with  each  other,  that  no  f>nc  has  a  right  to  say  to  his  neighbor  I  have  no  need  of 
thee.  It  should  be  one  of  the  aims  of  a  university  to  correct  this  onesidedness  of 
mind  which  is  infinitely  more  unhealthy  than  any  maldevelopment  of  the  body. 
It  is  to  be  ^counteracted  by  requiring  every  student  to  have  such  an  acquaint- 
ance with  each  of  the  grand  groups  as  to  know  the  elements,  to  have  an  idea  of 
its  method,  and  to  be  able  to  appreciate  its  im])ortance. 

ON  CHOOSINT,  STUPIKS. 

But  keeping  within  tliis  limit  prescribed  by  the  final  cause  of  a  university, 
there  may  surely  be  a  choice  allowed  the  students.  In  these  days,  when  the 
circle  of  knowledge  is  so  widened,  the  days  of  universal  scholars  is  seen  to  be 
gone  by,  and  if  any  one  pretends  to  have  mastered  ootmc  .5ci6!7e,  he  must  be  a 
mere  bookworm,  if  he  is  not  a'  coxcomb,  or  a  pedant  dull  as  a  dictionary.  A 
selection  then  must  be  made,  and  this  may  surely  be  partly  left  to  the  student ; 
he  may  sometimes  go  wrong,  but  far  more  frequently  he  will  be  led  aright  by 
irrepressible  inborn  instinct.  As  all  have  not  the  same  intellectual  stature,  it 
is  unnatural  to  force  all  to  stretch  on  the  same  Procrustes' bed  ;  and  if  you  at- 
tempt it  you  will  only  cripple  the  mental  frame."  All  are  not  born  with  the  same 
aptitudes  and  tastes,  and  the  same  reasons  which  induce  us  to  cultivate  our  natu- 
ral talent  should  lead  us  to  encourage,  foster  and  develop  special  genius  when 
God  has  bestowed  it.  Any  youth  of  ordinary  capacity  may  learn  elementary 
mathematics,  and  will  be  profited  by  it ;  but  I  defy  you,  even  with  a  pitchfork, 
to  make  every  one  a  great  mathematician  or  to  force  a  taste  for  the  study. — 
Every  educated  man  should  know  classics  till  he  can  read  any  ordinary  work, 
and  enjoy  the  literature  of  the  great  authors  ;  but  I  would  not  have  him  drilled 
thus  the  whole  years  of  his  course,  provided  he  has  shown  meanwhile  a  decided 
taste  for  other  studies.  How  often  have  we  found  the  youth  sick  of  dead  langua- 
ges and  abstract  formulfe  feeling  an  inexpressible  sense  of  relief,  and  as  if  a  new 
life  were  imparted  to  him,  when  hoi  is  allowed  to  turn  to  the  contemplation  of 
the  beauties  of  nature  or  the  wonders  of  the  human  mind.  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  in  the  early  years  of  college  attendance  there  should  be  an  introduc- 
tion to  representatives  of  the  principal  branches  of  learning  and  knowledge.  I 
am  convinced  that  these  liiight  be  so  taught  as  to  furnish  a  gratification,  a  plea- 
sure, giiadia  severa,  to  the  student  by  the  variety  of  food  presented.  I  have  heard 
it  argued  that  the  horse  was  not  so  soon  wearied  in  old  times  when  he  had  to  go 
up  hill  and  down  dale  alternately,  and  had  thus  a  change  in  the  muscles  exerci- 
sed than  he  is  now  when  the  strain  is  on  the  same  muscles  from  morning  to 
night  on  our  levelled  roads.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  a  student, 
wiien  wearied  of  one  subject  feels  himself  refreshed  when  allowed  to  turn  to 
another  requiring  a  diflerent  set  of  powers.  With  an  introduction  in  the  first 
two  years  or  so  to  varied  representative  branches  I  would  allow  considerable 
divergencies,  were  it  only  to  avoid  a  workhouse  uniformity  of  dress  and  exercise, 
in  the  third  and  fourth  years  ;  nay,  I  would  allow  time  for  peculiar  studies,  and 
even  miscellaneous  reading,  at  least  in  vacation  time.  You  see  I  would  not  have 
the  choice  made  till  tbere^has  been  an  introduction  to  all  the  groups,  for  until 
the  student  has  entered  a  department  and  gone  a  certain  length  how  can  he 
know  whether  he  has  a  taste  for  it  or  not  ;  how  can  he  know  whether  he  has  an 
aptitude  for  geometry  till  he  has  gone  over  the  Books  of  Euclid.  Supposing  a 
boy  to  begin  Latin  at  the  age  of  nine  or  ten,  I  hold  that  by  seventeen  or  eighteen 
he  might  have  a  general  acquaintance  with,  and  an  appreciative  recognition  of, 
the  value  of  the  various  departments  of  useful  knowledge,  and  then,  within  the 
wide  bounds  prescribed  by  the  college,  I  would  set  him  free  to  follow  the  bent 
of  his  nature  wherever  it  may  carry  him. 

CONCERNING    GENERAL    ANP    SPKCIFiC    STUPT. 

The  question  is  often  discussed  whether  it  is  better  to  have  general  knowledge  of 
many  branches,  or  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  one.  You  see  how  I  would  decide 


the  question.  In  these  days,  when  all  the  forces  are  seen  to  be  correlated,  and  all 
the  sciences  to  be  connected,  I  would  have  every  educated  man  acquire  a  broad  gen- 
eral acquaintance  with  a  number  and  a  variety  of  branches,  and  I  would  have  this 
followed  up  by  a  devoted  study  of  a  few,  or  of  one.  To  use  a  distinctionwhich  I 
met  with  the  other  day  in  reading  .James  Mellville's  diary,  let  education  first  he 
"circumferential,"  then  "centrical."  This,  I  believe,  is  following  the  course  nl' 
nature,  which,  as  every  physiologist  knows,  begins  with  the  general  and  then 
develops  into  the  sj)ecial.  Thus  far  I  would  encourage  pofymathin,  that  it  may 
lead  us  to  miamaihia.  I  would  first  allow_  the  energies  to  disperse,  as  from  the 
sun,  and  then  I  would  collect  tlieni  into  a  focus  as  by  a  lens.  In  this  way  I 
would  seek  to  combine  width  of  view  with  concentrated  energy.  Let  the  stu- 
dent first  be  taken  as  it  were  to  an  eminence  whence  he  may  behold  the  whole 
country  with  its  connected  hills,  vales,  and  streams  lying  below  him,  and  then 
be  encouraged  to  dive  down  into  some  special  place  seen  and  selected  from 
the  height,  that  he  may  linger  in  it,  and  explore  it  minutely    and  thoroughly. 

HI. IxV    WHAT    MOD!-:    SHOULD    THE     STB-IKCTS    BK     TAl'«HT, 

By  professors  or  by  tutors,  by  lectures  or  dry  text- books?  In  Oxford,  in 
Cambridge,  and  in  Dublin  the  teaching  is  chiefly  by  tutors  giving  instruction 
to  pupils,  one  by  one,  or  in'  small  companies.  In  Germany,  in  Scotland,  and 
the  Queen's  Colleges,  Ireland,  the  teaching  is  by  lectures  delivered  by  professors, 
accompanied  in  the  two  last  by  class  examinations  more  or  less  formal.  In 
Scotland  there  were  professors,  both  last  century  and  this,  who  did  little 
more  than  deliver  lectures,  often  very  brilliant  and  stimulating,  and  fitted  to 
rouse  suscejitible  minds,  which  often  felt  satisfied,  but  without  being  filled 
with  anything  solid.  There  has  been  a  reaction  against  this  extreme,  and 
now,  considerable  attention  is  paid  to  examinations,  and  tutors  are  employed 
to  assist  the  professor,  and  in  most  cases  a  text-book  is  employed.  The  question 
is  keenly  discussed  which  of  these  methods  is  the  most  preferable.  I  hold,  on 
the  one  hand,  that  lectures  serve  most  important  ends.  True,  they 
may  not  give  more  information,  than  a  text-book,  but  they  bring 
the  living  lecturer  into  immediate  contact  with  the  living  pupils.  There 
is  great  advantage,  also,  in  having  the  students  in  companies — that  is,  in  classes, 
and  these  considerably  large  ones.  This  arises,  not  so  much  from  emulation,  that 
ralcar  industrix  of  which  the  great  Jesuit  schools  made  so  much  use ;  as 
from  the  heads  and  hearts  being  made  to  beat  in  uuison — as  even  two  time- 
j)ieces  going  at  different  rates  will  do  when  placed  on  the  same  wall;  itarises 
from  the  living  connection  of  the  parts,  the  sympathy  and  reciprocity  in  a 
living  organism,  such  as  a' class  ought  to  be.  In  teaching,  the  first  thing  is 
to  awaken  the  pupils  ;  sometimes  this  can  be  done  by  persuasion — as  Montaigne 
was  awakened  in  the  morning,  when  a  boy,  by  music :  more  frequently  it  is 
by  a  rousing  call  as  by  a  trumjiet  ;  most  commonly  it  is  by  the  stir  of  com- 
panions. When  a  class  is  roused  into  activity  the  members  get  fully  as  much 
benefit  from  one  another,  each  one  drawing  or  pushing  his  neighbor,  as  from 
the  teacher,  whose  highest  business  will  be  to  keep  up  the  unity  and  the  life. — 
The  coldest  and  hardest  object  may  be  made  to  strike  fire  by  collision.  Davy 
melted  two  pieces  of  ice  by  rubbing  them  against  each  other,  and  the  coldest 
and  most  obstinate  natures  may  get  fire  and  diffuse  heat  hy  being  kept  by  the 
impetus  of  a  lively  teacher  in  constant  molecular  motion.  The  Rev.  M.Pat- 
terson speaking  of  Oxford,  says  :  "  In  respect  of  seventy  per  cent,  of  its  students, 
it  is  idle,  hopelessly  and  incorrigibly  idle."  There  is  no  such  lamentable  dis- 
proportion, as  I  can  testify,  in  those  who  receive  benefit  in  Scotland  and  the 
Irish  colleges,  and  this  arises  very  much  from  the  stimulus  given  by  class  lec- 
tures. On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  risk  that  in  a  large  class  a  great  many, 
the  cunning,  the  dull,  and  the  idle,  escajjc  in  the  crowd  ;  and  the  copious 
matter  poured  forth  by  the  professors  is  apt  to  be  like  those  gushing  torrents 
of  showers  which  run  off  immediate!}-  into  the  rivers  and  the  sea  with- 
out soaking  into  the  soil  to  fertilize  it.  It  is  evident  that  n  skillful  tutor 
taking  up  an  individual  pupil,  can  make  him  acquire  a  raiuute  accuracy,  so 
preferable  to  the  vagueness  and  looseness  with  which  so  many  content  them- 
selves in  a  promiscuous  class.  We  are  thus  shut  up  to  the  conclusion  that  in  a 
perfect  method  there  should  be  a  judicious  combination  of  the  two.  The  lecture 
must  continue  to  give  large  general  views  and  communicate  a  stimulus,  .is  by 
an  electric  current,  to  the  whole  class  But  then  there  must  be  rigid  examina- 
tions from  week  to  week,  almost  from  day  today,  to  make  the  pupils  "chew 
and  digest,"  as  Bacon  expressed  it,  the  food  ;  and  that  the  teacher  ?n ay  know 
how  to  impart  instruction  in  the  measure  that  they  are  able  to  receive  it.  With 
the  lecture  which  can  only  be  heard  once,  and  if  lost  on  that  occasion  is  lost  for- 
ever, there  should  be  text-books  to  which  the  student  may  turn  back   once  and 


28 

a::;iiiii  as  may  suit  liis  capacity  and  convenieDce.  I  hold  that  every  professor 
should  have  not  only  a  large  general  class  to  which  he  gives  an  impetus  by 
lecturing,  but  should  have  a  small  class  of  those  who  lag  behind  to  be  taught  by 
an  assistant;  and  also  a  select  class  taught  by  himself  and  composed  of  the  few 
who  are  to  be  made  thoroughly  masters  of  the  subject  or  engage  in  independent 
research.  I  am  most  anxious  to  see  whether  the  American  method  with  its  com- 
bined lectures  and  recitations  does  or  does  not  supj^ly  and  unite  these  requisites. 

IV. —  WUATIS  THE  PLACE  AND  THK    VALUE    OF    EXAMINATIONS. 

I  refer  now  not  to  class  examinations,  or  recitations,  which  ought  to  be  weekly, 
almost  daily,  but  to  general  college  examinations  on  courses  gone  over  or  on 
subjects  prescribed.  These  occupy  a  very  important  place  in  European  univer- 
sities. A  first  and  double-first  class  in  Oxford,  a  place  as  a  wrangler  in  Cam- 
bridge, are  obtained  by  examinations,  and  upon  these  the  valuable  money 
fellowshijis  depend.  The  fellowships  in  Dublin,  which  are  of  great  value,  are 
gained  directly  by  competitive  examinations.  The  honors  and  the  scholarships 
of  the  Queen's  colleges  are  determined  in  the  same  manner.  Of  late  years  the 
Scottish  colleges  have  l)oen  copying  from  the  English  ones;  on  this  point,  I  be- 
lieve greatly  to  their  advantage.  In  Germany  there  are  no  ordinary  class  or 
college  examinations;  but  at  the  ckise  the  students  are  examined  by  bureaus, 
in  order  to  theirentranee  on  any  office,  ecclesiastical  or  civil.  Some  people  think 
that  in  certain  of  these  colleges  there  is  too  much  of  official  and  grading  exami- 
nation, and  that  the  aim  of  the  teaching  is  not  to  improve  the  mind,  or  even  to 
convey  a  mastery  of  the  subject,  but  simply  so  to  drill  that  the  result  may  ap- 
pear in  the  answers;  and  the  impression  left  is  thatsubjects  andstudies  are  valu- 
ed, not  for  their  own  intrinsic  value,  but  as  they  come  out  in  the  examinations. 
It  is  certain  lluitthe  examinations  may  comesooften  as  to  interrupt  the  course 
of  study,  01'  to  bring  it  to  a  premature  conclusion:  in  short,  the 
plant  niay  he  kept  from  gi-owing  by  fumbling  too  often  about  its  mots 
to  see  if  it  is,making  j)r(\gress.  Then,  there  is  the  evil  of  craw,  in  which  an  im- 
mense mass  of  food  is  taken  at  once,  without  the  possibility  of  digesting  it,  and 
with  all  the  evil  of  a  surfeit.  I  have  been  told  by  youtig  men  who  have  made 
up  a  science  in  a  month  or  two  for  an  examination,  that  they  have  lost  it  as 
speedily  as  they  gained  it,  and  have  retained  little  else  than  an  aversion  to  the 
study.  It  is  certain  that  the  preparation  for  an  examination  and  a  successful 
comjietition  c;in  never  serve  the  purpose  accomplished  by  a  college  residence; 
by  well-oooked  food  being  served  up  from  day  to  day  :  by  sitting  habitually 
under  a  teacher  competent  for  his  work  and  interested  in  it;  by  constant  in- 
tercourse and  iiiterchange  of  thought  with  fellow-students;  by  recourse  to  well- 
furnished  libraries  and  museums,  and  by  the  stimulus  of  college  societies.— 
The  London  University  is  now  a  mere  examining  body,  giving  degrees  to  all 
who  can  stand  a  trial  on  the  subjects  prescribed.  I  have  no  objection  that  there 
should  be  one  such  university  to  meet  the  case  of  those  diligent  youths  who  can- 
not find  it  possible  to  attend  a  college  course.  But  I  should  deplore  to  find  the 
other  universities  of  the  country  reduced  to  the  same  level.  When  an  attempt 
was  made  to  turn  the  Queen's  University  into  an  examining  hoard,  we  success- 
fully resisted  the  attempt.  We  must  beware  of  making  learning  appear  in  the 
view  of  youth  with  the  fixed  passive  gaze  of  the  Egyptian  Sphinx:  we  must  seek 
to  make  it  wear  the  life  and  the  play  of  the  Grecian  Apollo.  In  a  properly  regu- 
lated course  of  study  there  must  be  a  leisure  for  rest  and  refreshing,  for  occasion- 
al promiscuous  reading,  and  for  rumination  on  the  i)ast,  and  for  looking  into  the 
future.  The  student  character  and  solid  sch(darship  are  to  be  formed,  as  the 
crust  of  the  earth  has  been,  by  continual  deposits,  building  up  layer  upon  layer  ; 
and  the  competitive  examinations  are  to  come  in  at  the  close,  like  the  up- 
heaving forces  of  the  earth  to  consolidate  what  is  scattered  as  sand,  and  t<j 
uplift  it  and  exjiose  it  to  the  view.  You  see  what  is  the  view  I  take  of  exami- 
nations. I  object  to  their  being  made  a  substitute  for  college  residence,  college 
attendance  and  college  training,  which  are  of  more  value  than  any  competitive 
trials.  They  are  the  folding  and  sealing  of  the  document  which,  however  in 
order  to  fulfil  any  puri)ose,  must  first  have  been  written  out.  But  then  they  do 
serve  a  most  important  end  when  they  come  in  to  complete  a  collegiate  course, 
shorter  or  longer.  They  then  wind  up  the  previous  studies,  they  necessitate  a 
revision  of  the  whole,  they  bring  every  route  to  a  point,  and  thus  show  us  the 
connections  of  the  studies  gone  ov«r  separately.  It  is  a  matter  of  fact  that  there 
is  always  more  of  accuracy  of  scholarship  and  mastery  of  detail  in  those  colleges 
in  which  there  are  careful  revising  examinations  than  in  those  in  which  there  are 
merely  loose  lecturing  and  daily  recitations  ;  and  there  is  no  other  way  of  de- 
termining fitness  for  graduation,  for  scholarships,  and  for  fellowships,  than  by 
some  sort  of  competition,  in  which  examinations  must  constitute  the  main  ele- 
ment always,  it  may  be  with  essays  and  original  research. 


29 

V. — WHAT    EN'COURAGKMKXT    SHOILJt    UK    GIVKN    TO    OOl.LKGiATF,     SCHOLARSHIP. 

In  many  of  the  colleges  of  Europe  immense  sums  a.ro  expended  every  year  in 
prizes,  scholarships,  an(J  fellowslii})S.  In  Oxford  there  arc  eighty  scholarships 
of  the  average  value  of  £65,  open  to  comjtetitiou  every  year  on  the  part  of  un- 
dergraduate students  ;  and  for  those  who  have  taken  the  degree  there  are  300 
fellowships,  worth  about  £;'>00  a  year  each,  the  whole  amounting  to  £90,000  ;  and 
some  twenty  or  thirty  of  these  faU  vacant  annually.  In  tlie  Queen's  colleges, 
£1,500  a  year  is  set  apart  in  each  for  scholarships;  and  there  are  large  money 
honors  to  he  obtained  by  competition  at  the  examinations  of  the  Queen's  Uni- 
versity. The  scholarships  and  fellowships  cimnected  with  the  University  of 
Edinburgh  are  especially  worthy  of  being  looked  to  by  the  Iriends  of  higher 
education  in  America,  inasmnch  as  they  have  all  been  supplied  by  private 
benevolence,  and  within  the  last  few  years.  I  will  not  specify  those  allocated 
to  junior  students,  but  it  may  be  useful  to  refer  to  those  reserved  for  graduates 
or  advanced  students.  There  is  the  Mackenzie  Scholarship,  worth  £120  a  year, 
gained  by  eminence  in  classical  and  English  literature,  and  tenable  for  four 
years.  There  is  a  Greek  Travelling  Scholarship,  tenable  forone  year,  and  worth 
£70.  There  are  four  Baxter  Scholarship.s,  each  worth  £60  a  year,  and  tenable 
for  not  more  than  four  years  ;  one  for  the  best  answering  in  mathematics,  the 
second  for  the  best  answering  in  mental  philosophy,  th(^  third  for  the  best 
answering  in  physics,  and  the  fourth  in  natural  historj'.  Tlie  Drummoud 
Scholarship  is  worth  £100  a  year,  and  is  tenable  for  three  years  ;  it  is  devoted  to 
mathematics.  There  are  three  Tyndall  Bruce  Scholarships,  each  wortli  £100  a 
year,  and  tenable  for  three  years  ;  one  for  general  scholarship,  a  second  for 
philosophical,  and  a  third  for  mathematical  scholarship.  There  is  the  Guthrie 
Fellowship,  devoted  to  classical  literature,  worth  £100  a  year,  and  tenable  for 
four  years;  and  the  Hamilton  Fellowship,  allocated  to  logic,  metaphysics,  and 
moral  philosophy,  of  the  value  of  £100  a  year,  and  continued  for  three  years; 
and  the  Classical  Fellowship,  worth  £100,  and  tenable  for  three  years.  There 
are  scholarships  in  divinity  and  medicine  which  I  pass  over,  to  refer  only  to  the 
Swiney  Lectureship  in  Geology,  woith  £144,  and  tenable  for  five  years.  Besides 
these  endowments,  confined  to  Edinburgh,  there  are  others  open  to  the  gradu- 
ates of  any  Scottish  University.  Thus,  there  are  three  Ferguson  Scholarships,  of 
£80  each  devoted,  respectively,  to  classics,  mathematics,  and  mental  science ; 
and  the  Shaw  Fellowship  in  Mental  Philosophy,  worth  £160,  and  tenable  for 
two  years.  It  is  acknowledged  on  all  hands  that  an  immense  impulse  has  been 
given  to  learning  by  these  munificent  foundations.  In  such  American  colleges 
as  Princeton  the  average  answering  at  graduation  is  quite  equal,  I  believe  to 
that  of  the  best  European  universities.  But  I  rather  think  that  there  are  a 
select  few  in  several  British  and  German  universities  who  go  beyond  what  has 
been  attained  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  I  believe  that  this  has  been 
effected  very  much  by  the  encouragement  given  to  higher  scholarship  on  the  part 
of  the  students. 

Is  there  no  way  by  which  you  Americans,  while  retaining  all  your  present  ex- 
cellencies, may  acquire  what  others  have  gained?  This,  I  believe,  could  be 
accomplished  by  providing  some  sort  of  higher  scholarships  or  fellowships  as  a 
reward  of  dilligence  and  success  in  the  past,  and  obliging  tliose  wlio  accept  them 
to  continue  their  studies  after  graduation  under  the  superintendence  of  the  col- 
lege. The  grand  hindrance  to  higher  learning  in  the  colleges  here  is  to  be  found 
in  the  circumstance  that  the  best  students,  after  getting  their  degree,  rush  at 
once  into  jirofessional  pursuits,  and  make  no  further  progress,  if,  indeed,  they 
do  not  lose  what  they  have  so  laboricmsly  acquired.  The  friends  of  the  Ameri- 
can colleges  could  not  benefit  them  so  effectually  as  by  providing  that  those  who 
have  taste  and  talent  for  higher  scholarship  should  have  an  inducement  to  con- 
tinue their  studies  after  graduation,  by  having  a  means  of  sustaining  themselves 
while  they  do  so.  These  distinguished  alumni  should  be  required  to  pursue 
special  lines  of  study,  or  to  travel,  and  might  be  encouraged  to  produce  the  re- 
sults in  brief  courses  of  lectures,  delivered  under  the  sanction  of  the  college  and 
sure  to  be  appreciated  by  the  students.  There  is  another  way  in  which  the  in- 
terests of  education  have  been  much  promoted  both  in  Prussia  and  Great  Britain; 
and  that  is  by  Government  patronage  bestowed  on  those  who  succeed  at  public 
examinations.  In  Prussia  young  men  can  enter  the  learned  professions  of  law, 
medicine,  and  the  church  only  through  the  universities  and  an  examination. — 
Not  only  so,  but  in  order  to  entrance  on  the  civil  service  of  the  country  an  at- 
tendance at  a  gymnasium  or  university,  followed  by  a  rigid  examination  is  re- 
quired. In  Great  Britain  all  young  men  entering  the  public  service — military, 
medical,  or  civil,  down  to  tide  waiters  and  office  porters — must  subnxit  to  a  lite- 
rary examination.  In  many,  offices  such  as  the  royal  engineers  and  the  medi- 
cal and  civil  service  of  India  are  to  be  had  in  this  way,  and  in   no  other.     Some 


30 

of  the  most  valuable  puV>lic  offices  in  the  world  are  gained  in  this  way,  such  as 
the  civil  offices  of  India,  which  begin  with  £400,  and  £500  a  year  and  speedily 
rise  to  £1,000,  or  possibly  £1,500,  open  to  all  young  men.  I  am  far  from  saying 
that  this  mode  of  appointment  to  Government  employment  is  not  liable  to  theo- 
retical objections  ;  but  jiractically  it  is  found  to  be  vastly  preferable  to  the  old 
method,  which  proceeded  by  nepotism  or  by  political  partisanship,  in  which 
the  member  of  parliament  was  obliged  to  recommend  the  youth  who  was  pressed 
>ipon  him  by  his  supporters  in  his  county  or  borough.  There  is,  of  course, 
always  a  risk  of  failure  in  the  case  of  the  appointment  of  untried  young  men  ; 
but  when  it  depends  upon  the  success  in  a  severe  competitive  trial  in  the  higher 
branches,  there  is  a  security  that  the  j'outh  must  possess  good  abilities,  that  he 
has  a  power  of  application  and  perseverance,  and  that  he  has  not  spent  liis 
time  in  indolence  or  vice;  which  last  capacity,  or  incapacity,  was  sometimes 
reckoned  as  constituting  his  aptitude  for  the  situation— those  unfit  for  anything 
else  being  often  foisted  into  a  Government  office,  when  their  friends  happened 
to  have  influence  with  the  dominant  ]>arty.  It  is  surely  worthy  of  considera- 
tion whether  the  offices  in  this  country,  requiring  to  be  filled  by  young  men, 
might  not,  with  advantage  to  the  community  and  to  the  great  encouragement  of 
learning,  be  thrown  ojien  to  the  public  competition,  instead  of  being  determined 
by  political  partisanship. 

VI. SHOULD    TIIICRK    KV.    U.NIVEIISITV     KXTKNSIOS. 

This  is  a  question  which  requires  to  be  agitated  in  some  parts  of  Europe.  The 
German-speaking  nations,  with  their  fifiy-eight  universities  and  19,000  students, 
do  not  seem  to  stand  in  need  of  such  extension  ;  nor  does  Scotland,  with  its  four 
old  efficient  universities  ;  nor  Ireland,  with  its  two  universities  and  its  four  state 
endowed  and  its  various  denominational  colleges.  But  England  certainly  has 
much  need  of  the  establishTnent  of  new  colleges,  especially  in  its  great  centres  of 
wealth  and  population,  such  as  London  and  Manchester,  and  Bristol  and  Newcastle. 
Every  friend  of  education  and  of  mankind  will  rejoice  to  see  colleges  extending 
all  over  this  country  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  from  Maine  to  New 
Mexico,  advancing  with  the  population  of  the  country,  refinijig  its  energy,  and 
i)urifying  its  wealth.  But  we  have  a  right  to  ask  that,  while  new  universities 
are  encouraged,  the  old  be  not  discouraged,  I  believe  that  the  excessive  multi- 
plication of  small  and  ill-sustained  colleges  in  a  district  may  be  an  enormous 
evil.  In  these  days  of  rapid  locomotion  it  is  ol  little  moment  to  a  student 
whether  he  have  to  go  ten  or  twenty  miles  to  a  college,  one  hundred  or  five 
hundred.  I  believe  that  there  is  always  more  of  stimulus,  more  of  success, 
more  of  life,  less  of  conceit,  less  of  narrowness,  of  sectarianism,  of  knottiness, 
in  large  classes  and  large  colleges  than  in  small  ones.  Care  should  certainly  be 
taken  that  in  the  excessive  competition  the  food  do  not  become  adulterated,  that 
the  new  colleges  do  not  drag  down  the  old.  till  all  sink  to  a  Dead  Sea  level.  We 
should  rather  strive  that  the  old  be  bringing  up  the  new  to  a  higher  standard, 
and  that  we  have  a  number  of  colleges  thoroughly  equipped  by  able  men,  by  ex- 
tensive apparatus,  and  by  chairs  for  teaching  every  high  branch  of  literature 
and  science.  We  must  not  yield  to  the  temptation  to  whicih  we  are  exposed,  of 
sending  unripe  fruit  into  the  market;  or,  to  vary  the  metaphor,  of  resting  con- 
tented with  lumber  fabrics,  or  running  up  walls  with  undried  mortar.  In  new 
and  waste  countries  they  must  be  satisfied — and  we  do  not  blame  them — with 
the  log  cabin  ;  but  then  they  rise  as  speedily  as  possible  to  the  frame  house : 
and,  as  the  country  becomes  older,  they  would  have  the  more  solid  brick  and 
the  stone;  and  now,  not  only  your  capitols,  but  not  a  few  of  j'our  private  dwell- 
ings, are  of  marble.  There  ought  to  be  such  an  ascension  in  your  colleges  as 
the  country  grows  older  and  richer.  In  the  Far  West  they  may  start  with  little 
better  than  our  high  schools;  but  in  the  older  East  we  must  not  rest  satisfied 
till  we  have  institutions  to  rival  the  grand  old  universities  of  Europe,  such  as 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  Berlin  and  Edinburgh.  What  makes  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  have  such  an  influence  on  those  who  live  within  their  walls,  and 
which  is  sensibly  felt  even  by  those  who  pay  them  only  a  passing  visit  ?  The 
great  men  who  have  been  there,  and  who  still  seem  to  look  down  upon  us  ;  the 
living  men,  n^ot  unworthy  of  them,  and  who  are  pointed  out  to  us  as  they  walk 
through  the  courts  :  the  "talk  of  the  tripos  and  the  first  class,  and  the  double  first 
and  the  wranglerships  ;  the  quiet  life  in  the  Colleges,  and  the  active  life  in  the 
examination  halls,  in  the  societies,  and  the  great  university  meetings;  the  man- 
uscripts, the  old  books,  the  museums — all  these  create  an  academic  atmosphere 
in  which  it  is  bracing  to  breathe,  and  is  felt  to  be  more  stimulating  than  all 
the  excellent  teaching  of  the  tutors.  Will  our  numerous  friends  not  join  with 
the  professors  and  students  in  striving  to  create  such  an  atmosphere  here  in 
Princeton,  where  we   have  grand  names  in  the  past  and  need  only  like  men  in 


31 

the  present;  by  accessions  to  our  a[iparatus  and  our  library  and  encouragement 
to  the  students  to  go  on  to  the  higher  learning;  and,  by  the  founding  of  new 
chairs  of  literature  and  science,  to  make  our  college  as  adapted  to  these  times 
as  our  forefathers  made  it  suitable  to  their  day  ? 

For  the  handsome  and  considerate  kindness  shown  by  those  who  have  so 
endeared  themselves  to  me.  as  well  as  benefitted  this  college,  by  endowing  the 
presidential  otiice  and  furnishing  mo  with  a  comfortable  home,  I  give  public  and 
hearty  thanks.  Mj'  personal  comforts  being  provided  for,  I  am  free  to  look  to 
other  interests.  Of  late  years  certain  generous  friends  have  endowed  ehairs'in 
the  college,  and  now  we  have  a  princely  merchant  devoting  a  large  sum  to  its 
extension  generally;  and  a  friend  of  science  aims  at  placing  on  our 
height,  with  its  wide  horizon,  the  finest  observatory  in  the  world.  They  will 
be  followed,  I  trust,  by  others.  The  friends  of  Princeton  must  come  forward  at 
this  time  to  uphold  her  and  make  her  worthy  of  her  ancient  reputation,  and 
enable  her  to  advance  with  the  times;  one  whom  God  has  blessed  increasing  the 
salaries  of  our  hard-working  and  under-paid  professors,  who  should  be  set  free 
from  drudgery  and  worldly  anxieties  to  give  a  portion  of  their  energy  to  the 
furtherance  of  learning  and  science;  a  second,  by  providing  further  accommo- 
dation for  our  students,  that  we  may  receive  and  house  comfortably  all  who  ap- 
j)ly  ;  a  third,  by  erecting  a  gymnasium  for  the  bracing  of  the  bodily  frame;  a 
fourth,  by  enlarging  our  library  or  our  scientific  apparatus  ;  a  fifth,  by  founding 
a  scholarship  or  junior  foUowshijj  for  the  encouragement  of  letters  and  high  merit 
among  students  ;  and  a  sixth,  by  founding  a  new  chair  required  by  the  progress 
of  knowledge.     We  have  scope  here  for  every  man's  tastes  and  predilections. 

TIIK      I'OSSIHILITV    OF    STATE    UNlVERSITIfiS. 

Speaking  of  the  desirableness  of  elevating  the  learning  in  our  higher  institu- 
tions, I  have  sometimes  thought  that  as  Oxford  University  combines  some 
twenty-two  colleges,  and  Cambridge  eighteen,  so  there  might  in  this  country  be 
a  combination  of  colleges  in  one  university.  Let  every  State  have  one  univer- 
sity to  unite  all  its  colleges,  and  appointing  examiners  and  bestowing  honors  of 
considerable  pecuniary  value  on  more  deserving  students.  Some  such  a  combi- 
nation as  this,  while  it  would  promote  a  wholesome  rivalry  among  the  colleges, 
would  at  the  same  time  keep  up  the  standard  of  erudition.  Another  benefit 
would  arise :  the  examination  of  the  candidates  being  conducted,  not  by  those 
who  taught  them,  but  by  electeil  examiners,  would  give  a  high  and  catholic  tone 
to  the  teaching  in  the  colleges.  I  throw  out  the  idea  that  thinking  men  may 
ponder  it. 

nassat;  iiai.l  in  pautictlau. 

But  returning  to  ourselves.  New  Jersey  College  has  a  great  prestige,  second, 
I  believe,  to  no  other  in  the  United  States.  But  we  cannot  live  on  our  past 
reputation — any  more  than  our  frames  can  be  sustained  on  the  food  of  which  we 
have  partaken  days  ago.  In  these  times,  when  it  is  known  that  all  things  move, 
earth  and  sun,  stars  and  constellations,  we  cannot  stop  or  remain  stationary,  ex- 
cept at  the  risk  of  being  thrown  out  of  our  sphere  without  the  power  of  returning 
to  it.  In  this  new  country  we  have  to  look  to  our  children  more  than  our 
fathers,  and  "instead  of  the  "fathers  shall  be  the  children."  You  will  have  seen 
from  the  whole  train  of  these  observations  that  I  aim  at  keeping  up  the  academic 
standard  at  Princeton.  I  have  not  torn  myself  from  my  native  land  and  friends 
to  be  the  mere  head  of  a  mechanics'  institute;  I  would  rather  you  should  send 
me  back  to  my  old  country  at  once  than  make  me  and  your  college  submit  to 
such  humiliation.  This  college  will  repay  the  debt  which  it  owes  to  the  country 
not  in  a  depreciated  currency,  but  in  the  genuine  coin,  with  the  flying  eagle  upon 
it  and  the  golden  ring.  Parents  and  guardians  sending  their  sons  to  this  vener- 
able institution  must  have  a  security  that  they  will  receive  as  high  an  education 
as  any  college  in  this  country,  as  any  college  in  any  country,  can  furnish. 

VII. — WHAT  PLACE  SHOULD  RKLIGION  HAVE  IN   OUR    COLLEGES. 

In  Scotland  the  established  church  long  claimed  an  authority  over  the  col- 
leges, and  over  all  their  teaching,  and  provided  a  form  of  religion.  I  can  testify 
that  it  was  little  more  than  a  form, and  this  not  always  the  form  of  sound  words. 
For  years  the  control  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  over  anything  but  the  theological 
professors  has  been  taken  away,  and  with  it  all  that  remained  of  the  form  has 
disappeared ;  and  now  the  Scottish  colleges  profess  to  give  nothing  more  than 
secular  instruction,  men  of  piety  always  seeking  to  imbue  their  whole  teaching 
with  a  religious  spirit.  The  keen  battle  being  at  present  fought  in  England  is 
likely  to  terminate  in  the  same  issue.  But  good  men  concerned  about  the  relig- 
ion and  morality  of  young  men  cannot  allow  things  to  continue  in  that  state. — 
How,  then,  is  religion  to  be  grafted  on  State  colleges  open  to  all,  whatever  their 


32 

religious  profession  ■?  I  liave  thouglit  much  on  tliis  subject,  ami  labored  with 
some  success  tx>  realize  my  idea,  in  Belfast.  Let  the  State  provide  the  secular 
instruction,  and  the  churches  provide  the  religious  training  in  the  homes  in 
which  the  students  reside. 

But  passing  from  foreign  topics,  this  college  has  had  a  religious  character  in 
time  past,  and  it  will  be  my  endeavor  to  see  that  it  has  the  same  in  time  to  come. 
Religion  should  burn  in  the  hearts,  and  shine,  though  they  wis  it  not,  from  the 
face  of  the  teachers  ;  and  it  should  have  a  living  power  in  our  meetings  for  wor- 
ship, and  should  sanctify  the  air  of  the  rooms  in  which  the  students  reside.  And 
in  regard  to  religious  truth,  there  will  be  no  uncertain  sound  uttered  witiiin 
these  walls.  What  is  proclaimed  here  will  be  the  old  truth  which  has  been  from 
the  beginning;  which  was  shown  in  shadov.'  in  the  Old  Testament;  which  was 
exhibited  fully  in  the  New  Testament,  as  in  a  glass  ;  which  has  been  retained  by 
the  one  Catliolic  Church  in  the  darkest  ages;  wliich  was  long  buried,  but  rose 
again  at  the  Reformation  ;  which  was  maintained  by  the  grand  old  theologians 
of  Germany,  Switzerland,  England,  and  Scotland,  and  is  being  defended  with 
great  logical  power  in  the  famous  theological  seminary  with  which  this  college 
is  so  closely  associated.  But  over  this  massive  and  clearly-defined  old  form  of 
sound  words  I  would  place,  no  theological  doctor,  not  Augustine,  not  Luther,  not 
Calvin,  not  Edwards,  but  another  and  {av  fairer  face,  lifted  up  that  it  may  draw 
all  eyes  towards  it,  "Jesus,  at  once  the  author  and  the  finisher  of  our  faith."  A 
religion  of  a  neutral  tint  has  nothing  in  it  to  attract  the  eye  or  the  heart  of  the 
young  or  the  old.  I  believe  that  the  religion  which  can  have  any  power  in 
inioving  the  minds  and  moulding  the  character  of  students  or  of  others  must  be 
the  pure  evangel  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  you  will  expect  of  one  descended  from 
the  old  covenanting  stock,  who  fought  so  resolutely  for  the  rights  of  conscience, 
and  whose  blood  dyed  the  heather  hills  of  Scotland;  from  one  who  was  brought 
up  in  a  district  where  there  are  martyrs'  tombs  in  every  churchyard  :  from  one 
who  was  connected  for  so  man}'  years  with  the  Irish  system  of  national  educa- 
tion, which  allows  no  one  to  tamper  with  the  religious  convictions  of  pupils — 
that  he  shall  take  care  that  every  one  here  shall  have  full  freedom  of  thought  ; 
that  whatever  be  his  religious  creed  or  political  party,  be  he  from  the  North  or 
be  he  from  the  South,  bo  he  of  a  white  or  of  a  dark  color,  he  shall  have  free  ac 
cess  to  all  the  benefits  which  this  college  can  bestow  ;  and  that  a  minority,  nay, 
even  a  single  conscientious  individi^al,  shall  bo  protected  from  the  tyranny 
of  a  majority,  and  encouraged  to  pursue  his  studies  without  molestation,  pro- 
vided always  that,  not  being  interfered  with  himself,  he  does  not  interfere 
with  others. 

You  have  called  me  to  the  highest  oflice,  so  I  esteem  it,  which  your  great 
country  could  place  at  my  disposal.  But  if  I  know  my  own  heart,  I  am  not 
vain,  I  am  not  even  ]>roud  as  I  might  be,  of  the  distinction  which  has  been 
conferred  upon  me.  I  am  rather  awed  at  the  thought  of  the  responsibility 
lying  upon  me.  I  come  here,  I  find,  amid  high  expectations,  and  how  am  I 
eVer  to  come  up  to  them?  I  get  this  College  with  a  high  reputation,  and 
what  if  its  lustre  should  diminish  ?  My  name  is  this  day  added  to  the  roll  which 
begins  with  Dickinson  and  Aaron  Burr,  embraces  Jonathan  Edwards,  Davies, 
Finley,  Witherspoon,  Smith,  Green,  Carnahan,  who  have  left  their  impress  not 
only  on  this  college  but  on  the  country,  and  comes  to  one  who  for  long  years 
felt  so  deej)  an  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  students,  who  was  able  to  teach 
nearly  every  department  in  the  institution  over  which  he  presided,  and  whom 
we  will  all  delight  to  honor  as  he  passes  his  remaining  days  in  peace  among  us. 
Of  a  king  in  Israel  it  is  said  that  they  buried  him  in  the  city,  "  but  they 
brouii'ht  him  not  into  the  sepulchres  of  the  Kings  of  Israel."  I  confess  I  should 
like,  when  my  work  is  finished,  to  be  buried  among  these  kings  in  the  realms  of 
thought,  thatniy  dust  may  mingle  with  their  dust,  and  my  spirit  mount  to  ])ure 
and  eternal  communion  with  them  in  heaven.  I  feel  that  the  labor  mean- 
while will  be  congenial  to  me.  My  whole  past  life,  as  a  student,  as  a  minister, 
and  as  a  professor,  should  prepare  me  for  it.  My  tastes  have  ever  led  me  to- 
wards intercourse  with  young  men.  I  have  the  same  estimate  of  youth  that 
the  Spartans  had  when  Antipater  demanded  of  them  fifty  youths  as  hostages ; 
they  answered  they  would  rather  give  twice  the  number  of  grown  men.  I 
rejoice  that  my  lot  calls  me  to  labor  among  young  men.  I  wish  to  enter  into  their 
feelings,  to  sympathize  with  them  in  their  difficulties,  with  their  doubts  in 
these  days  of  criticism,  to  help  them  in  their  fights  and  rejoice  with  them  in 
their  triumphs.  And  so  I  devote  my  life,  any  gifts  which  God  has  given  me, 
my  experience  as  a  minister  of  religion  in  a  great  era  in  the  history  of  Scotland, 
my  experience  as  a  professor  in  a  young  and  living  college,  under  God,  to  you 
and  your  service. 


